Church of the Game

Playing Free Realms

2009-06-24T16:05:00.004-06:00

Even though I am still playing World of Warcraft I've tried some new games lately.

I've been playing Free Realms which is really a great game. There are several jobs you advance through - I am partial to the Chef and Postman jobs but I've found myself doing more as a Miner than anything else lately.

I play often with my daughter and I think they have done a great job making a MMO that anyone can play. There is combat for those that want it but it is something you don't have to participate in.

There are several different mini games each gives a different reward. Some allow you to collect items that you need for quests or crafting recipes.

It is also free to play but there are in game quests, items, and jobs that are only available for subscribers. Free accounts only get a single character and subscribers get to play 3 seperate characters. The game also uses in game micro purchases - items that you need to spend real money to aquire.

As a parent one feature I really like is that under age account security. Under age accounts can only use canned mesages - not typed chat. There are language filters that prevent words from being displayed in the in game chat.

Freee Realms is still just starting out but I think it will be a really exciting and full place to play for many years to come.

Another great author lost

2008-11-11T20:07:00.003-07:00

Michael Crichton died recently (November 4th, 2008).

Although Mr. Crichton was not among my very favorite authors I enjoyed his work. I loved his "Jurassic Park" novel, and a friend gave me his book "State of Fear". I enjoyed the book and I liked how he put together credible (if fictional) arguments about global warming science.

I think by far his favorite novel I have read is "The Andromeda Strain". I read it the first time in junior high and re-read it in college.

Maybe I'll pick up "State of Fear" and give it another read, or buy "Next" the last book published before he died. One thing is certain - Mr. Critchton's books will sit on my bookshelf, waiting for my daughter to get to an age when I can start to share them with her.

NaNoWriMo 2008 Day 1 (posted a few days late)

2008-11-01T21:37:00.003-06:00

I've decided to try something different for NaNoWriMo this year. I will not be able to commit to the grind of writing 1500 words per day. I have decided to try and write every day and to go through the steps in the package "Twenty-One Days to a Novel" by Michael Stackpole.
I don't want to give away too much of the contents of the package but Day ones exercise took about 45 minutes, although much of the time was given to the extra tasks as opposed to the primary task for the day. I've already read the beginning of tomorrows task and I think it will be an interesting and productive day 2.
I also re-installed Q10. I tried it last year but after losing close to 3000 words in a crash I quickly got rid of it. I am going to give it another try. So far it is working great. I am still tweaking the settings but several saves and no crashes yet.
writing time today: 87 minutes
word count today: 357 including blog entry

Retraining

2008-09-04T08:53:00.000-06:00

I like the concept of retraining from the players handbook. When you go up a level you not only learn new skill sand gain new powers you can also replace one of your old powers. Of course there are limitations, you can't replace a racial or class power - or drop a power that is a prerequisite for another power you have.

What you can do is drop a power you are no longer using or grab a prerequisite for a new power you want to try. The only thing I am not sure of is can you swap out one power, one feat, and one ability. Or, can you swap out one power, feat, or ability. My initial take is you can make one change per level but I am still looking for a explicit confirmation from the handbook.

No rolling for ability scores?

2008-09-03T09:49:00.002-06:00

It is most likely my age showing but the first 2 methods for creating your ability scores don't involve dice. I can just here my inner cranky old man:

"In my day we rolled 3d6 for stats AND we assigned them in the order we rolled them, you young punks don't know how good you have it..."

I am going to give the new system a few tries and see how it works out but it just seems odd that new players will not use dice to get their ability scores. I understand the character balance issues, and the problems that a severely under or over powered character can create.

I can remember starting a new character. I would start with a character concept - lets say a over zealous cleric. Then I'd start rolling. 17, 14, 18... hey these are good enough numbers to be a paladin...

I am going to start by building a few characters, creating each one using all the methods in the PHB ans see how it turns out.

Players Handbook

2008-09-02T14:15:00.002-06:00

I have finally gotten to the character creation process in the new players handbook. I like the layout of the new book but there is a lot of introductory information in the book. I am not sure if that is a good thing or not. I kept skipping ahead but I forced myself to read all the text.

It might be that the content is just right but I am not a new player so it seems to be too much information explaining what a roleplaying game is and what a check is and how to make a skill check...

I would like to hear from a new player who reads this as their first introduction to a roleplaying game.

Twitter

2008-08-29T21:22:00.001-06:00

I signed up for a twitter account a few days ago. I have been following a few people via RSS for a while but I figured I would give it a try.

I am intrigued by the idea of a micro blog but I am not sure if I like it or not. I have had a tumblr account for a while but have not used it mainly because I can not get it to work from my phone. I have added twitterfox to my firefox install but will most likely remove it as it is too distracting. I get pulled away from what I am doing when I get a new twitter notification.

I wanted to use tumblr a while ago to start posting small posts with pictures but because I could not get the posts to work from my phone I just never got it started.

I am going to keep twitterfox for a two week period and then re-evaluate. I might start posting once a week in each just to see how it works.

Post Script: I think that twitter might be a good meetup tool. I post "I will be going to lunch at Bulgogi House on 83rd Ave at 12.30 pm". People I know could post "@papaganoush I will join you." I don't know how well that would work though.

The new campaign!

2008-08-28T10:51:00.000-06:00

I am getting ready to set up for my new campaign. it is going to be a pretty lazy set up I will be using H1 pretty much out of the box. Hopfully I'll have the dates and time all set up by next week.

Starting the Players Handbook (PHB)

2008-08-27T22:46:00.002-06:00

Okay I've gone over the H1 book and maps and I am comfortable with the content.

I will now start to digest the new Player Handbook. I am only a few pages in and I can already say I like the layout a lot better than the third edition version. I find it easier to read and the binding seems to be really well done.

I'll try to post some pics here once Blogger's latest upgrade is live.

The Fudge List... is gone

2008-08-25T12:58:00.003-06:00

I received an email a week ago that the Fudge List was closing. I just read the post on the list closing by Carl and I have to say I think he really hit the nail on the head. Carl talks about how the list stagnated in the end.

I first found the Fudge List back in 1999 or 2000. I didn't post anything for the longest time but I really enjoyed reading the list and hearing all the different ideas on how do use Fudge to play different games. The list was a vibrant community.

In the end though I was frustrated by the conversations all taking sharp turns to the left and turning into discussions about the List rather than the game. As Carl has said maybe closing the list will lead to something new in the Fudge community. I am glad that I am part of the Fudge community. I am glad I was a member of the Fudge List. I hope that the Fudge community will burst forth from the closing of the Fudge List and become a vibrant community again.

Thanks Carl and Karen! Thanks Steffan and Ann and Rob and Fred. Thanks to all the people who shared their ideas. Thanks to all those hundreds of people who answered my questions and critiqued my ideas. Thanks to all the people who agreed with my ideas and thanks to all of those disagreed with my ideas too.

Fudge list archives

Movement in fourth edition

2008-08-13T13:49:00.001-06:00

I like and dislike the new movement rules. I love the way they have been simplified. You can move 6 squares. Powers will allow you to move half your movement. You can "Shift" 1 square as a minor action. Certain powers will force you to run your movement +2 squares.

This is so much easier than the old systems, especially when you had several speeds. How far could you move and still attack?

So much better, but movement is listed in squares. Which leads to not only a table top representation being needed, but a table top with a grid on it. This I am not as happy with. Although I have already read a few posts online that playing with a pocket tape measure will allow the movement system to work without a grid.

Level 70!

2008-08-12T10:14:00.000-06:00

My Druid hit level 70 in World of Warcraft this past weekend.

It was really cool and I got a sense of accomplishment from it but I have to say it was kind of anti-climatic. I was playing alone late at night and logged off once I had completed the level. I am pleased that I finally hit the max level (for now) in the game but I don't think that the time I spend in the game will really change. I am still "chasing" things but now instead of chasing XP I am chasing items and gold, lots and lots of gold - ad Motes of everything.

One thing I am really looking forward to is helping the lower level characters up the ladder to 70 as well.

And the renos begin...

2008-08-11T12:31:00.000-06:00

Today the contractor starts work on the bathroom(s). I am looking forward to the finished product but the process of living in a construction zone is less than appealing.

We are going with a newer contractor but we looked at his work and it was very well done.

Maybe I'll figure out how to get Blogger to post pictures by the time this is finished.

Look something shiny!

2008-08-07T06:40:00.001-06:00

I was really excited to see someone had built the new 4th Edition powers into printable cards. However, now that I am getting closer to actually playing i am thinking that although the power cards are three kinds of awesome i don't know if I want to use them.

The game is already going to be fairly reliant on a table top representation of the action, I don't want to add another aspect to the game that will reduce the game to a collectible card game (I play several CCG and TCG's I don't think they are bad but I don't want to change the RPG experience to a CCG).

maybe i'm over-reacting.

Julia Nunes

2008-08-06T20:53:00.001-06:00

Wow.

Julia Nunes rocks.

Go watch/listen to her.

Now.

Really.

A Typical Encounter

2008-08-06T20:04:00.000-06:00

I like the layout of the new encounters. I've ready 95% of the H1: Keep on the Shadowfell adventure.

The layout for the encounters is:
Name of the Encounter
Encounter level (Expected XP)
Setup
Overview of the encounter. This includes how the encounter fits into the overall plot. Which included game aids to use. List of the enemies in the encounter. And setup for the encounter.

Features of the Area
Includes a description of the features that will affect the encounter like lighting and any features that might grant cover or concealment.

In the H1 booklet this also includes complete stat blocks for all the creatures in the encounter.

Tactics
This is a breakdown of the tactics the author expects the opponents to use in the encounter.

There is also a side bar for many of the encounters that point out ways to deal with particular components of this encounter, like the lighting or whether one side of the encounter is surprised.

I have a love hate relationship with the Tactics section. I think it is a great idea but it also means that the DM can be reduced to cranking widgets. For a bought product the repetition of the monster stats in each encounter means i am getting less content for my money but I like that the monsters and opponents are all printed in the encounter where they are used. No flipping around or looking up stats during the encounter.

I am very curious if and how the layout will change for the H2 adventure.

Now that I have read through the adventure I am starting to see what Carl was talking about. There is one encounter that seems to be far higher level than the party would expect to be when the plot reaches that point.

I'll have to see how the encounter plays when we play the game next month.

Defense Values

2008-08-03T11:47:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite additions in the fourth edition rules is the addition of multiple defense values, expanding the Armor Class and in sme ways replacing or reducing the need for a saving throw mechanic.

Before an effect would target a player and their only defense would be their armor class. This was modified to use a touch attack in the third edition and included my favorite weird wording rule the "ranged touch attack". Depending on the type of activity the target would then get a saving throw.

This sounded simple but could lead to several rolls and table lookups for a single activity.

Fourth edition simplifies this by adding three new defense types to the process. Now an attack might target the characters Armor class or target one of the new defense values Fortitude, Reflexes, or Will. So the same action will now require one role against the targets defense value. This is a small change that will greatly streamline the process while also reducing the accounting required by the DM.

Tomorrow I'm going to take a look at the new format for encounters in the Keep on the Shadowfell adventure.

Lego Indiana Jones

2008-08-02T14:23:00.002-06:00

Just returned from Costco and picked up the new wii game Lego Indiana Jones.

As I mentioned earlier Lego Star Wars let me introduce the Star Wars universe to my daughter. Now I can share the pulp stories I love including Indy with her.

She is upstairs playing with her cousins now.

I am reminded of the stories Wil Wheaton tells about playing games with his kids. I love playing games with my daughter and these new games are opening up new stories that I can share with her as well.

Lego Star Wars and Daddy time

2008-08-02T11:48:00.001-06:00

I recently picked up Lego Star Wars to play with my daughter. This was one of the best ideas I've had in a very long time.

This gave me the opportunity to introduce the Star Wars characters to my daughter. After playing several levels together she wanted to start her own game. I helped her set up her own and let her start the game all by herself. We still play together and I get called both to help her on the harder levels and asked to drop out of the game when I am "holding her back"

We have watched the original trilogy movies now. So far "A New Hope" is her favorite.

It have been an absolute joy for me to watch with her these movies that brought me such enjoyment nearly thirty years ago when I was her age. After playing the game - some of her comments watching the movies are truly priceless: "Why doesn't R2-D2 fly with his jets?"

I can't wait to watch the new trilogy with her.

Arena Football

2008-08-01T15:01:00.001-06:00

Another Arena football season has ended (Congratulations to Jon Bon Jovi and the Philly Soul on taking the championship).

I was unable to watch many game though. Local coverage is almost non existent, and the league went from NBC - with almost a weekly game on local TV, to ABC - with a game on in week 1 and nothing until the arena bowl.

I tried the AFLNet program again, but the new free service never quite worked for me. I was only able to connect for a few games and the connection was not very reliable. I tried listening online to the EPSN2 radio coverage but almost every station blocked access to Canada. I tried regional radio coverage for the local teams but faced the same problems as the EPSN stations.

I asked a couple local sports establishments and they were in the same boat I was in unable to get the games on TV.

So although I really like the indoor game I will no doubt start to lose interest in the game as time moves forward and it becomes harder and harder for me to see the game live.

Saves

2008-08-01T13:37:00.002-06:00

The fourth edition seems to really simplify the rules. The saving throw from the previous editions is gone. In its place is a new mechanic that will greatly reduce the record keeping required in the game.

Many effects will have the notation "save ends". This means that the effect lasts until the affected character rolls a successful saving throw. Unlike in previous editions the save does not take place at the time of the condition is placed on the character (whether the condition is placed by attack, ability, or other in game action). Saves always happen at the end of your turn. In place of the old "save on attack" method is different defense values that I'll talk about tomorrow.

So after you have taken all your action you get to roll a save for each condition affection your character in the order you choose. The mechanic is also greatly simplified, roll a d20 and if you roll 10 or higher you save, if you roll 9 or lower the condition stays in effect for another round.

This is going to really reduce the amount of paper work for the DM. The DM mearly has to mark teh effect on the character. At the end of the players turn if they save the effect is removed, if they fail it stays in effect. No more counting rounds, marking on whose turn the effect started (and consequently on which turn the effect will stop).

I think this is a huge improvement on the third edition save, which was a massive improvement over the classic saving throw tables from the basic and advanced D&D games.

Actions and action points

2008-07-31T12:33:00.000-06:00

Remember when you used to play a cleric and you had a chance to finish the big bad guy but you didn't because if you did Bob the Fighter would have died from his wounds. So you cast your heal on Bob and forgo your attack for the round. The next round Bob smashes the bag guy, grabbing the glory as you mutter quietly to yourself.

Actions in the fourth edition make it possible for you to avoid this kind of situation. First each character can use three (3) actions* during their turn. A move action, and minor action and a standard action. So how can you and Bob keep Bob alive and slay the bad guy without the cleric giving up his shot at glory?

1. Bob can give up his standard action to heal himself with a healing surge (more on these another day).
2. Clerics can use certain healing abilities as a minor action so both you and Bob can both attack the bad guy.
3. You can attack the bad guy as a standard action and use an action point to heal the Fighter as a second standard action.

Action points are not really new to fourth edition but the coolness they add to the game can not be underestimated, allowing for heroic action sequences. Characters start with one action point and can earn them through game play. Don't hoard them though, when you rest you lose any unused action points and return to one action point.

So what kind of things can you do with an action?
A move action lets you move. Depending on where you start will determine how far you can move and whether or not you are going to give anyone an opportunity for a free attack.

A minor action lets you do all sorts of things. Drawing a weapon is a minor action, many at will abilities are minor actions. Healing Word for example is a minor action that allows you and one ally to both take a healing surge.

A standard action will let you make an attack use a skill and use many of the new abilities. The Clerical powers Turn Undead and Cure Light Wounds both use a standard action.

You can also take these action in whatever order you decide.

*There is also free actions, you can take as many free actions as the DM lets you take.

At Will abilities

2008-07-30T17:26:00.006-06:00

Digging into the rules and I have found some things that I really like in the first day.

At will abilities are simply a great idea. I can not recall the number of times that as a mage or cleric I have been at the game table and cast my magic missile or cure minor wounds spell and found myself playing a background role for hte rest of the evening. The rarity of being able to cast that spell sometimes limited the mage and cleric to secondary roles as the action passed them by after they had used their daily power. Rogues and Fighters had abilities that you could use all the time. Fighters cutting into foes and Rogues sneaking about trying to catch an opponenet by surprise.

In the new rules evereybody gets at will abilities. So the Mage and Fighter can both bring a cool ability to bear each and every round.

That is all for today, tomorrow actions and action points.

Starblazer Adventures

2008-07-30T11:53:00.000-06:00

The Starblazer Adventures RPG is now available for purchase as a PDF. This is the first RPG book that will list me in the credits. You can get some more information on the game at Cubicle 7.

You should go buy one or two (I don't get a cut of sales). You can get it at RPGNow.

Return of the blog...

2008-07-29T10:50:00.003-06:00

Well its been almost a year since my last post. I really lost the passion for writing on my blog after my vacation last year.

However, after a long time off I am ready to start again. I picked up the new gift set of Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition and I am really excited about gaming again. I have a full table for a planned game.

I will be running the H1: Keep on the Shadowfell adventure as written and using only the core books. Once that adventure is done I might buy the Eberron campaign setting if the group is interested in the "steam punk" feel of the setting.

I'll post more as I get through the books and start the sessions.

Cool New Dice (now imageless!)

2007-09-11T18:27:00.000-06:00

Edit: After fighting with blogger I have given up on getting the images to work. I'm going to go back to imageless posts until I can get a reliable way of displaying the images.

At Gen Con I picked up some new dice.

First I picked up a set of hand carved Fudge Dice at the Q-Workshop booth. They are pretty sweet looking. They have a few flaws (I got the last set) but they are still a really great set.

I also picked up a new Fudge GM set to use when I play Spirit of the Century. I know I am a little geeky about dice but I am super pleased with this set because the sets of fudge dice are all either left or right handed. The last Fudge GM set I purchased had a mixture of left and right handed dice in each set which drove me crazy. [editors note: I am seeking help.] The dice were also super cheap - about 25% less than I can get them locally.

Finally I picked up a World of Warcraft dice set. The dice are meant to be counters for the World of Warcraft card game. The container for the dice is a chest like you would find in the game. The set looks Great.

Gen Con 2007

2007-09-08T09:22:00.000-06:00

Edit: Something is going wrong with the images so I have pulled them and I will republish with the pictures once I know what is going wrong.
Edit: Images fixed

I had the pleasure of going to Gen Con this year.

I was volunteering at the tNook booth but I managed to escape the booth and spend a good deal of time and money on the exhibition floor.

Some of my favorite places to visit:

The IPR (Indie Press Revolution) booth. I purchased both Spirit of the Century and The Burning Wheel. I got to speak with Greg Porter about EABA and I got to meet Ben Seth Ezra and ton of others.

I also got to meet a young lady named Julia. Julia Bond Ellingboe write a new game called "Steal Away Jordan". Based on slaves and slavery it is a well written and well done book from all I have been able to see. It might be a bit scary to actually play the game but discovering some of the scarier bits of a life of slavery might not be a bad thing for a middle aged white Canadian. I never got to play the game with Julia as I had hoped to but I hope that this one is a big success for her and that she keeps writing new games.

I also got to meet Rob Donoghue, Fred Hicks, and Lenny Balsera and each of them offered to run a demo of "Spirit of the Century" with me. My biggest regret of the Con was not playing with them. Maybe next year. Each were really great and were good enough to sign my new hard cover. Lenny even asked me to bear his children.

I also got to meet Luke Crane he was demoing Burning Wheel and I got to watch a demo and got to talk to him a bit about the game. He also signed my burning wheel.

I seemed to visit the IPR booth everyday except Sunday. Sunday was the UDE volenteer meeting - more on that in another post.

I also spent some time watching a demo of Fudge by Ann Dupuis. Ann has done more for FUDGE over the years than maybe any other publisher.

I also got to see a lot of pretty cool new toys. UDE had the next raid and expansion set on display. One of the biggest surprises is that the booster packs will go from 15 to 19 cards with the Legion expansion. The UDE booth had a quest challenge with 8 questions and if you were one of the top 50 to complete 5 of the 8 questions you got a Fires of Outland playmat. Since tNook had 5 of the 8 answers in the WoW card database so it was pretty easy for me to complete the quests.

UDE also has BIG plans for VS with the release of a Galactus deck that is designed to be battled like a raid deck in WoW. I am learning to play VS just so I can play against the Galactus decks.

Wizkids had a bunch of really cool things on display including the Halo Action Clix Scarab vehicle. They had the Fin Fang Foom again for sale and it is a really nice looking giant size piece. I can't wait to take a team against him to see if we can tame the dragon.

Blizzard had the new expansion available for people to try and it was almost always packed to the rafters in the Blizzard booth. I got to watch for a bit but did not get to play. They also had Starcraft II and it looks completely awesome. I wish my PC was even close to playing that game.
One surprise was a game called the continuum. I took a quick look at it but later on Sunday both myself and Troy went and got to play in a demo. It looks really cool. It is not a splashy game but the tactics and strategy of the game will keep me interested. I spent close to a half hour playing the demo and it was a lot of fun. I didn't know it at the time but the guy stepping me through the demo was the CEO of the company.

I think some of the most fun came in the tNook booth. After I had purchased Spirit of the Century I put it out on the table and several people stopped to talk about the game or ask about it. Especially after it had won an Ennie award. We got to meet a lot of really great people. Some people would stop by a second or third time to ask more questions or because they had an idea about something else. Now I am in contact with some of those same people as I build new tNooks, which is totally cool - more on that in another post too.

To cap off the weekend I me a young man named Alex at the Indianapolis airport. He had gotten several loot bags at Gen Con and each bag contained a World of Warcraft starter deck. Along with Troy I was able to teach him the basics of the game and coach him in a game against Troy. I hope Alex keeps playing and had as much fun as I did.

The Con really sparked in me a new desire to roleplay on a regular basis again so I hope to have an online game of Spirit of the Century or Burning Wheel up and running in the near future as time allows.

"Gatecrasher" and "Believe It Or Else"

2007-09-06T20:31:00.000-06:00

For some reason I missed the part about the recent transfer/sale of Seraphim Guard that said that Gatecrasher reverts to Richard Gazely. I am curious what will become of these games. I really liked the mix of fantasy and technology presented by these games.

I never quite liked the slapstick nature of the setting (I liked the humor but I would rather it be a bit more muted than the books portrayed) but playing the game serious or with a comedic flavor could be done.

There were some things about the setting I really liked:
1. Magic and Technology together.
2. The back stories were great.
3. The humor - Church of the Game and all.

There were some things about the game that I didn't like:
1. It is the crunchiest Fudge game I have ever seen.
2. More technology means less magic and vice versa.

I just grabbed the books from my bookshelf and I am going to re-read them as soon as I am finished reading through "Spirit of the Century".

Writing Software

2007-09-05T15:03:00.000-06:00

I am looking at treating myself to some new software for NaNoWriMo this year but I am having difficulty finding a package I like. I am looking at the different writing packages and seeing if they fit my needs. One difficulty I am having is I am not 100% sure of what features I want. I am looking at portable wikis as well as professional writing packages.

I also am looking at what the professionals use. I am more than a little surprised that many of the professionals use simple text editors or plain word processors.

In a perfect world the tool would also let me write blog posts.

For portable wikis:
WikidPad
I have used WikidPad before. I stopped using it when I started using jotspot and google docs. I might give it another try. I liked the tool but I found I was spending a lot of time learning the tool and its secrets. I also struggled with adding a spell checker. I ended up building my own. I know a similar spell checker has now been made for the tool so I might have to take another look at this personal wiki.

Instiki
Instiki is a ruby wiki. I like the idea of using a ruby based app. I might be able to put it on my thumbdrive too.

MoinMoin Desktop
It might be a bit before I give this one a try as it requires a separate python install.

TiddlyWiki
TiddlyWiki is a javascript wiki with tons of tools and addons. The community is very active and community support is excellent. I have used it before and found it okay but not excellent.

The professional packages I am looking at are:
WriteWay
I am looking at WriteWay which got a very good review. Unfortunately the installer for the demo is failing and I have not been able to reach their support group. It looks like a polished version of the yWrite software. i am really interested in the story boarding part of the software.

yWrite
yWrite3 is a free tool written by Simon Haynes. It is available at Spacejock software. The software seems very feature rich but I am not sure that it suits my style. There seems to be a lot of pop ups and dialogs. I am going to give it a try but I think I want something simpler.
I like the storyboarding component and may keep it just for that reason alone. I also like how each scene in the story has a rating for Goal, Conflict, and Outcome. So the structure seems to work really well but the writing part to me is too cluttered and busy. Maybe I'll keep this for hte structure and planning and just write in a plain editor.

Wil Wheaton at PAX

2007-08-29T20:21:00.000-06:00

Wil Wheaton gave an amazing keynote at PAX recently. I have listened to it several times and it is incredible. While I have been a fan of Wil's for a few years my interest waned a bit this spring as his blog drifted away from topics I found interesting and his style seemed to slip a bit. Over the last few weeks he has started to capture my attention again.

The PAX keynote is simply.!@#$ing.awesome!

Wil's Blog: http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/

Wil's PAX keynote: http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2007/08/pax-ftw.html

ArenaBowl XXI

2007-07-30T12:00:00.000-06:00

The Arena Football season ended yesterday with the San Jose SaberCats defeating the Columbus Destroyers in New Orleans. The SaberCats last lost on April 13 when they lost to Voo Doo in New Orleans. They then won 10 straight to finish the season 13 and 3 and then won 3 straight playoff games to capture the 2007 Arena Bowl.

The Destroyers were called a Cinderella team all afternoon. They qualified by defeating the New York Dragons on June 23. Qualifying 6th in the National Conference they traveled first to Tampa Bay and defeated the Storm by one point. The following week they visited Dallas and defeated the heavily favored Desperadoes, in part because they recovered 2 consecutive kicks deep in Dallas territory when the ball took a favorable bounce off the nets. Finally they reached the arena bowl by again defeating a heavily favored opponent when they visited Georgia. For quarterback Matt Nagy it was especially sweet to eliminate the team the traded him away after he lead the Force deep into the playoffs and set several season records for the team last year.

The Destroyers kept the game close but were chasing the SaberCats for almost the entire game. San Jose had several defensive stops and the Destroyers were not able to match the SaberCats defensive pressure. San Jose seemed to score every time they had the ball and the San Jose defense forced mistakes from Nagy and the Destroyers.

Watching the game on TV was a treat after watching many of the games online. I love AFLNet but watching the game on the 40 inch wide screen vs the 17 inch PC screen is a big difference. I did lose interest at times as the Destroyers seemed to be destined to lose from the second quarter on. The Destroyers didn't seem to be able to match San Jose and slowly the SaberCats took control of the game.

I can't wait until next year. I plan to renew my AFLNet subscription next year but I am also going to look at getting access to more TV feeds for the games.

The Missing posts

2007-07-30T11:40:00.000-06:00

For reasons I have not been able to determine all the posts I have made in the last six weeks never made it to the page.

I am trying to track down what went wrong, but I seem to be missing 4 football posts, a World of Warcraft post and a HeroClix post.

I will try to get the recovered posts back if I can.

AFL - The home stretch begins.

2007-06-01T13:33:00.000-06:00

Week 13 results (my correct picks in bold, my incorrect picks in italics)
New York Dragons 69 New Orleans VooDoo 63
Philadelphia Soul 76 Austin Wranglers 66
Chicago Rush 53 Arizona Rattlers 47
Colorado Crush 56 Grand Rapids Rampage 58
Tampa Bay Storm 38 Georgia Force 52
Dallas Desperados 56 Columbus Destroyers 47
Los Angeles Avengers 56 Kansas City Brigade 62
San Jose SaberCats 48 Nashville Kats 34
Utah Blaze 65 Orlando Predators 62

So in a week that I really had no time to read and prepare I manage to go 6 and 3 (57 and 41 on the year). I was particularly surprised by the Grand Rapids win over Colorado.

This week the AFL enters the home stretch as teams start playing for playoff position rather than just the playoffs. As was the case at the beginning of the year the Dallas Desperadoes look like the team to beat and a Chicago Rush team I thought was destined for another .500 season is 8 and 3.

Week 14 games
Dallas Desperados (11-1) at Philadelphia Soul (6-6)
Earlier this year this looked like it might be a battle of the titans but now the Soul are just trying to fight for post season berth and Dallas is the team to beat. The Soul will still be looking for help after the Desperados leave town with another win.

Orlando Predators (7-5) at San Jose SaberCats (9-3)
San Jose wins at home still looking to take first in the American Conference.

Kansas City Brigade (7-5) at Grand Rapids Rampage (4-8)
Grand Rapids gets back to losing after a surprising win last week against the Crush.

Columbus Destroyers (6-6) at Georgia Force (10-2)
Georgia wins at home and makes a strong case for a first round bye.

Austin Wranglers (3-9) at New York Dragons (5-7)
The Dragons win another game to move a bit closer to a .500 record. Something I thought would be impossible after the first few weeks of the season, New York is currently IN the playoffs and if they keep winning they will be playing in the post season and you saw what Chicago did last year with a 9 and 9 record. Go Dragons!

Tampa Bay Storm (5-7) at New Orleans VooDoo (4-8)
Tampa Bay beats the VooDoo and puts pressure on the Dragons for that final playoff spot in the3 National Conference.

Chicago Rush (8-3) at Los Angeles Avengers (6-6)
Chicago continues to make me look bad for doubting them early in the season and wins again.

Arizona Rattlers (3-10) at Las Vegas Gladiators (2-10)
Another case of someone has to win this game. Vegas wins, barely.

Colorado Crush (8-5) at Utah Blaze (6-7)
The crush visit Utah and come away with another win .

Nashville Kats (5-8) have the bye and will spend their week off cheering for Colorado.

Another addiction

2007-05-29T19:33:00.000-06:00

I have been posting less often than usual. Partly this is because I have been a bit busier at work. Partly I have been setting doing demos for the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game and setting up a monthly game night at Happy Harbor comics.

Mainly I think it is because I started playing the World of Warcraft online game.

I have been playing far too much - about twice as often as we were playing Guild Wars. I don't want to turn this into a WoW vs GW post though. The main reason I am playing World of Warcraft is because the people I know playing slowly switched to WoW. So I tried it out.

I am playing a Druid. I picked a Druid because I like the shape-shifting aspect and the class is very versatile. The druid is a spell caster and healer, and can do direct damage like a mage or heal like a priest. They can also tank like a warrior in bear form or sneak around like a rogue. So I thought that it would give me a good range of the game play experience.

So far I am very pleased. I sometimes feel almost over whelmed with the number of quests available. I prefer questing to grinding (which may be why I am a few levels behind the people I play with). I love bear form and I just got my sea lion form - my daughter likes when my bear dances.

The only thing I don't like is the time I have been spending in the game. I am hoping that once I catch the group and start running raids that the number of hours I need to spend to keep up with the group will drop.

So if you are on the Pernolde server look up Chickaquack.

AFL Week 13

2007-05-24T22:02:00.000-06:00

Week 12 results
New Orleans VooDoo 34 Philadelphia Soul 78
Orlando Predators 46 Austin Wranglers 45
Kansas City Brigade 56 New York Dragons 62
Grand Rapids Rampage 44 San Jose SaberCats 69
Georgia Force 51 Los Angeles Avengers 57
Nashville Kats 44 Chicago Rush 27
Columbus Destroyers 40 Colorado Crush 58
Las Vegas Gladiators 54 Utah Blaze 53
Arizona Rattlers 50 Tampa Bay Storm 59

Week 13 scheduled games
Utah Blaze (5-7) at Orlando Predators (7-4)
Utah was upset by Las Vegas last week - unfortunately they will not fair much better against the Predators losing by a large margin.

San Jose SaberCats (8-3) at Nashville Kats (5-7)
The SaberCats clinch a playoff berth with a win on the road.

Los Angeles Avengers (6-5) at Kansas City Brigade (6-5)
A strong KC team is upset at home by the visiting Avengers.

Tampa Bay Storm (5-6) at Georgia Force (9-2)
The Force bounce back from the upset loss last week to the Avengers and beat up on the suddenly resurgent Storm.

Colorado Crush at Grand Rapids Rampage
Colorado gets a win on the road and grab a playoff spot (because of the Utah loss)

Dallas Desperados (11-1) at Columbus Destroyers (6-5)
The Desperadoes roll into Columbus and grab win number 11 on the season, clinching a playoff berth for the Georgia Force.

Chicago Rush (8-3) at Arizona Rattlers (3-9)
Chicago defeats the Rattlers and thanks to the Utah loss they clinch a playoff berth.

Philadelphia Soul (5-6) at Austin Wranglers (3-8)
The Soul are lucky to visit the struggling Wranglers this week giving them a shot at a 500 record. Philly wins in Texas.

New York Dragons (4-7) at New Orleans VooDoo (4-7)
This is the game I hope to be able to watch. New York wins behind another massive game by Andy Garcia.

Las Vegas Gladiators (2-10) have the bye, but they might still find a way to lose this week.

Missing last week was probably good for my record leaving me at 51 and 38.

AFL The missing week

2007-05-22T10:41:00.000-06:00

As both regular readers have probably noticed I missed posting an AFL prediction for Week 12. Time and travel prevented me from getting a post out. I will post the results from week 12 and predictions for week 13 this week.

Week 11 - Arena League Football Guesses

2007-05-11T15:02:00.000-06:00

So week 10 was a disaster. I wnet 4 and 5 and dropped my season record to a dismal 51 and 37 (58%). I'm not even going to bother reviewing last week. The only games I got right were the obvious (Dallas, Georgia, and Chicago wins and Las Vegas loses are not that hard to pick).

This weeks matchups:
Grand Rapids Rampage (3-6) at Columbus Destroyers (5-4)
Columbus take a step back into the playoff picture by defeating the struggling Rampage.

New Orleans VooDoo (4-5) at Orlando Predators (5-4)
The Predators win at home defeating a VooDoo Squad that finds itself near the bottom of the Southern division.

Colorado Crush (6-4) at Nashville Kats (4-6)
Colorado bounces back from a loss to Chicago last week to beat the Kats in Nashville.

Utah Blaze (5-5) at Kansas City Brigade (5-4)
Utah continues to fall losing to the Brigade.

Austin Wranglers (3-6) at Arizona Rattlers (2-8)
Austin and Arizona are both struggling - Austin continues to struggle losing a close game to Arizona.

Tampa Bay Storm (3-6) at Los Angeles Avengers (5-4)
Los Angeles gets a win against a visiting Storm.

Las Vegas Gladiators (1-9) at San Jose SaberCats (6-3)
San Jose will have no trouble at home against the visiting Gladiators.

New York Dragons (2-7) at Philadelphia Soul (4-5)
New York is still having difficulty winning even with Andy Garcia. Philly tries to get back into the race after 5 straight weeks without a win. Philly wins a close one at home.

Chicago Rush (8-1) at Dallas Desperados (9-1)
In a potential Arena Bowl preview the Rush lose for the second time this year. This was a Friday Night game but was moved to Monday night by the AFL and EPSN. I hope to be able to see this game but it is unlikely I will be able to catch unless they add it to the AFLNet schedule.

Georgia Force (9-1) have the bye

Week 10 - Arena Football

2007-05-04T10:45:00.000-06:00

Week 9 was a good week. I finally got my head free of my ass and made some decent picks. Here are the results (my correct picks in bold - my incorrect picks in italics).

Philadelphia Soul 43 Chicago Rush 54
Orlando Predators 69 Las Vegas Gladiators 34
Columbus Destroyers 32 Tampa Bay Storm 34
Utah Blaze 48 San Jose SaberCats 69
Grand Rapids Rampage 71 Los Angeles Avengers 75
Arizona Rattlers 45 New York Dragons 67
Nashville Kats 62 Dallas Desperados 69
Georgia Force 72 New Orleans VooDoo 57
Colorado Crush 45 Kansas City Brigade 42

W00t! a 7-2 week. That is the kind of week I needed. This takes my year to 47 and 32 not spectacular but at 59% I am getting back into the realm of actually picking the winners and getting out of pure guessing range. The experts at arena football all have me beat by percentage but I am creeping up there.

From ArenaFootball.com
Michael Murillo 69.84%
Gary Reasons 68.25%
Jenn Boehm 68.25%
Wayne Morris 68.25%
Peter Schwartz 68.25%
Mike Rose 66.67%
Ryan Altizer 65.08%
Nate Boudreaux 61.90%
Ray Bentley 60.32%
Me 59.49%

This week watch for Dallas and Utah, Predators at Georgia, and Colorado visiting Chicago to be big games. Each one features a team with only one loss against a team with a winning record. Orlando, Utah or Colorado can do a lot damage by getting an upset this week. New York looks like they can make some noise with the return of Andy Garcia - the playoffs might be beyond reach for the dragons but the next few weeks will show the kind of team they will be next year. The bubble teams like Columbus, Utah, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Nashville andLos Angeles look to start making a run to the playoffs. I think the best game this week will be the Monday night game between Colorado and Chicago. Colorado is chasing Chicago in the central division. The Crush can get within a game of the Rush with a win.

Week 10
New York Dragons (2-6) at Columbus Destroyers (4-4)
New York with Garcia back is a different team than we saw in the first half of the season. Columbus is not going to be able to take this Dragons team lightly. The Dragons with Garcia take another game keeping hopes of a 500 season intact.

Orlando Predators (5-3) at Georgia Force (8-1)
Georgia beats the Predators keeping the pressure on Dallas and Chicago.

Dallas Desperados (8-1) at Utah Blaze (5-4)
Dallas dominates the Blaze.

Kansas City Brigade (4-4) at Philadelphia Soul (4-4)
Philly stops the slide and wins at home to keep a winning record.

Nashville Kats (4-5) at Grand Rapids Rampage (2-6)
Nashville gets back to 500, Grand Rapids is already looking at next year.

San Jose SaberCats (5-3) at Arizona Rattlers (2-7)
San Jose pulls further ahead of division rival Blaze with a win over the struggling Rattlers.

Tampa Bay Storm (2-6) at Austin Wranglers (3-5)
Tampa Bay fails in the quest to gets a third win against the Wranglers.

Los Angeles Avengers (4-4) at Las Vegas Gladiators (1-8)
Las Vegas loses to the Avengers becoming the first team to guarantee a losing record this year.

Colorado Crush (6-3) at Chicago Rush (7-1)
This is a tough game to call - both teams are capable of winning. Most of the experts at arenafootball.com are picking Chicago except for Michael Murillo who thinks that the Crush can pull off the upset. I am going to call for the upset and call for Colorado to tighten up the central division race.

New Orleans VooDoo (4-5) has the bye this week

AFL Week 9

2007-04-27T10:33:00.000-06:00

Reuslts for Week 8:
Wow... I have managed to sink even further. I went 4 and 5 last week bringing my year to date record for this season to: 40 and 30. Only 2 more weeks until I drop below 500 for the season. The only high point for me last week was that I picked the Dallas loss correctly.

Here are last weeks results with my picks in bold.
Philadelphia Soul 21 Columbus Destroyers 44
Los Angeles Avengers 49 San Jose SaberCats 73
New Orleans VooDoo 38 Austin Wranglers 45
Kansas City Brigade 40 Nashville Kats 49
Chicago Rush 75 Grand Rapids Rampage 54
Dallas Desperados 63 Georgia Force 78
Las Vegas Gladiators 53 Colorado Crush 63
Arizona Rattlers 83 Utah Blaze 69
New York Dragons 47 Orlando Predators 52

Predictions for Week 9

This looks like a week where the power teams push for bigger separation form the pack teams. Georgia and Dallas look to take a stranglehold in their divisional races. While Utah and Chicago try to pull away from the pack.

Colorado Crush (5-3) at Kansas City Brigade (4-3)
The Crush win at Kansas City putting pressure on the Rush in the central division.

Georgia Force (7-1) at New Orleans VooDoo (4-4)
Georgia wins easily putting themselves 4 games ahead of the second place team in the southern division.

Nashville Kats (4-4) at Dallas Desperados (7-1)
Dallas comes of their first loss with a big win at home. Like Georgia they will have a comfortable lead in the eastern division.

Arizona Rattlers (2-6) at New York Dragons (1-6)
New York wins, which should make me feel better about things in general

Grand Rapids Rampage (2-5) at Los Angeles Avengers (3-4)
Los Angeles loses another game to an opponent they should be able to beat.

Utah Blaze (5-3) at San Jose SaberCats (4-3)
San Jose defeats the Blaze to make the western division the closest race in the league.

Columbus Destroyers (4-3) at Tampa Bay Storm (1-6)
Tampa continues to struggle and Columbus tries to keep the playoffs in sight.

Orlando Predators (4-3) at Las Vegas Gladiators (1-7)
Orlando win in Vegas but are still need some help if they plan to catch Georgia.

Philadelphia Soul (4-3) at Chicago Rush (6-1)
The Rush put a big beatdown on Philly at home giving Philly its 4 loss in a row after starting the season 4 and 0.

Austin Wranglers (3-5) get the bye

World of Warcraft Demo on Free Comic Book Day

2007-04-24T09:27:00.000-06:00

Jay over at Happy Harbor Comics has a great line up of events for Free Comic Book Day. Included will be demos for the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game.

There will be costumed characters you can get your picture taken with, local artists doing custom portraits and live professional wrestling.

I will be there running the demos for WoW and James Klatt will be teaching Heroclix as well.

I have to say I am quite excited to be part of what looks to be a pretty entertaining day.

Week 8 - Arena Football

2007-04-20T11:49:00.000-06:00

I don't have a lot to say about last week, a quick review game by game;

Philadelphia Soul 41 Dallas Desperados 51
Me - Desperadoes (1-0) vs. Chris - Desperadoes (1-0)

Las Vegas Gladiators 68 Georgia Force 69
Me - Force (2-0) vs. Chris - Force (2-0)

Colorado Crush 49 New York Dragons 48
Me - Crush (3-0) vs. Chris - Crush (3-0)

Nashville Kats 62 Arizona Rattlers 36
Me - Kats (4-0) vs. Chris - Rattlers (3-1)

Grand Rapids Rampage 41 Kansas City Brigade 52
Me - Brigade (5-0) vs. Chris - Rampage (3-2)

Tampa Bay Storm 37 Orlando Predators 61
Me - Storm (5-1) vs. Chris - Storm (3-3)

Austin Wranglers 49 Columbus Destroyers 72
Me - Wranglers (5-2) vs. Chris - Wranglers (3-4)

Los Angeles Avengers 63 Utah Blaze 76
Me - Avengers (5-3) vs. Chris - Blaze (4-4)

San Jose SaberCats 54 New Orleans VooDoo 67
Me - SabreCats (5-4) vs. Chris - SabreCats (4-5)

So I went 5-4 again and my season record is now 36 and 24 or 60%. Chris went 4-5. This week I am just going to pick the games, I am not going to read the power poll, the expert picks, or the what to expect articles. I need to get myself out of this slump.

New York Dragons (1-5) at Orlando Predators (3-3)
The Predators are happy to see a struggling Dragons team visit Florida as they have stumbled after a string start and need to pick up some wins in the next few weeks to get back into the playoff hunt. The Dragons play well but lose again and the Predators pull themselves back above 500.

Arizona Rattlers (1-6) at Utah Blaze (5-2)
Arizona will continue to struggle and the Blaze will pull farther ahead in the western division standings.

Las Vegas Gladiators (1-6) at Colorado Crush (4-3)
There seems to be quite a few games like this one. A struggling team like the Gladiators take on a Crush team that needs a win to push for the playoffs - and the struggling team here will lose - giving the Crush a much needed win in the tight central division.

Chicago Rush (5-1) at Grand Rapids Rampage (2-4)
Chicago comes off the bye and visits Grand Rapids. Grand Rapids is a team that really needs a win to try to turn the season around but they will fall to the powerful running offense of the Chicago Rush.

Dallas Desperados(7-0) at Georgia Force (6-1)
This is a big game and could decide home field advantage in the playoffs. I am going to pick Dallas to finally lose a game.

Kansas City Brigade (4-2) at Nashville Kats (3-4)
Nashville absolutely needs to win this game if they want to have even a faint hope at the playoffs. Chicago, Kansas City, and Colorado all have better records in the central division. Kansas City has been playing very well this year and Nashville will lose again at home this week.

New Orleans VooDoo (4-3) at Austin Wranglers (2-5)
The VooDoo go to Texas and beat the Wranglers.

Los Angeles Avengers (3-3) at San Jose SaberCats (3-3)
Sombody leaves San Jose with a winning record and will pull into second place in the western division behind Utah. The Avengers look to get revenge on a San Jose team who visited LA in week one and left with a victory. I'll give the Avengers the edge here and pick them to defeat San Jose.

Philadelphia Soul(4-2) at Columbus Destroyers (3-3)
I'll take Philly to get back in the win Column in this important divisional game as both the Soul and Columbus try to keep pace with the powerhouse Dallas Depserados.

Tampa Bay Storm (1-6) have the bye this week

Warlock Pets: Old School vs. New School

2007-04-19T13:18:00.000-06:00

I am going to focus on the Warlock pets for the World of Warcraft trading card game. The Heros of Azeroth provided 4 pets (Grimdron, Helwen, Infernal, and Sarmoth) and Dark Portal gives the Warlock 3 more (Doomguard, Morfiel, Piztog).

First I'll give a quick overview of the cards:
Old School
Grimdron - a 1 cost pet with 0 Attack and 1 Health. Grimdron is elusive and has the ability to exhaust to deal 1 damage to a target hero or ally.
A pretty useful small ally that I did not play a lot He was generally pushed out of my deck by removal abilities like Shadow Bolt and Vanquish. Can be a powerful card when facing a weenie rush as he will destroy Apprentice Teep, Vesh'ral, and Leeroy Jenkins.

Helwen a 4 cost pet with 2 Attack and 2 Health. Here ability is to exhaust and take control of an ally. Helwen is a very powerful card especially if you can get her into a party that contains Mezzik Darkspark. Using her ability to take control of an opponents ally. Use it to attack and then destroy the ally with Mezzik. She is difficult to keep in play with only 2 Health.

Infernal - a 6 cost pet that was the rare card included in the warlock starter deck. This 6 Attack and 6 Health ally is a massive beast that also deals 1 damage to all opposing allies. When I first built warlock decks this was my victory condition. When he hits the borad you are looking at a 2 for 1 exchange or better for your opponent to remove him.

Sarmoth - a 3 cost ally and the best protector in the game. Sarmoth has 1 Attack and 5 Health and if an opponent can attack Sarmoth they must attack Sarmoth. This little voidwalker can buy you a turn or more to build up. I can't think of the last time I built a warlock deck without 4 Sarmoths incuded.

New School
Doomguard - A 7 cost ally that is a true beast. 8 Attack and 8 Health and destroys a target opposing ally at the end of your turn. The downside of this is that you destroy a friendly character in your party when the Doomguard enters play. This is another potential victory condition.

Morfiel - a 4 cost with 4 Attack and 4 Health. While in play Morfiel forces opposing players to pay 1 extra resource for abilities. A 4/4 ally is pretty good and the added control benefits. Add a Morfiel to a pair of Curse of Tongues as your opponent is looking at a 3 resource penalty to play abilities.

Piztog - a 1 cost, 0 Attack and 2 Health pet. Piztog buffs other allies in your party with +1 Health. The same benefit that Nerra Lifeboon grants for the Alliance but much cheaper. Like Grimdron he is also elusive and can make a difference against rush decks.

On the surface the old school seems to have the advantage here. Sarmoth is a must have in every warlock deck. Helwen is more likely to show up in Alliance builds. Infernal will appear in many decks. Grimdron will show in some decks but not a majority. The new school has Piztog that, like Grimdron, is not going to appear in many decks. Morfiel will likely appear in more decks than Helwen. The big hitter from the new school is Doomguard and the possibility of self desctruction when the card enters play will mean he doesn't show up in as many decks as he would otherwise.

I put Sarmoth by himself - this card is too good and will not be replaced by a card in the new set. Sarmoth is the best tank ally in the game everything must attack him and even though he does only 1 damage per attack his 5 health means that of the 202 allies in the game only 37 have the 5+ Attack value to defeat him without help (this does not include allies like Stitches or Tewa Wildmane that might have a high enough attack value). And unlike protectors he doesn't have to be ready to stop an attack.

The other 6 cards can be paired together in 3 sets. Early game (Grimdron vs Piztog), mid game (Helwen vs Morfiel) and late game (Infernal vs Doomguard).

Grimdron vs Piztog
Both these little imps cost 1 resource to bring into your party. While a +1 Health buff to your other allies is an excellent effect, Piztog is not a game breaker in any deck. Were you able to bring in multiple pets his +1 buff would be very powerful indeed but because you can not stack his effect it limits his effectiveness in the game. One thing he will do is keep Vesh'ral and Apprentice Teep from being destroyed by a Frost Nova. Grimdron seems to be the better of the two early game pets. He is very fragile with only 1 health but he can take out a lot of early game allies and he has a chance at destroying a Searing Totem if he is on the field before the totem is played. I am not a fan of either Grimdron or Piztog, I have to give the edge to Grimdron as he has an small outside chance of getting into my side deck.

Helwen vs Morfiel
Helwen is a great ally, if you can protect her for a turn, and you can get control of a good ally, and you can then use that ally against your opponent. Too many conditions. If I play Helwen turn 4. Turn 5 I take control of an Ally. Turn 6 I can use the ally to attack. By turn 7 or 8 the game is usually getting close to completion. So if the controlled ally is destroyed on turn 6, I need to capture another ally turn 7 and then hope to use it on turn 8. I think her power is great but takes too long to have an effect. If I can capture ferocious allies or have other tools like Into the Fray, Mezzik Darkspark, or Sever the Cord she becomes a bit more useful as I can use her each turn past turn 5. Morfiel also costs 4, but with 4 health is a lot tougher than Helwen and its effect comes into play immediately and remains in effect until Morfiel is destroyed. Having your opponent pay extra for abilities is a good effect but really the effect of Morfiel is to force your opponent to play a turn or more behind you. On turn 5 you can play a 5 resource ability but your oppoent is forced to wait for turn 6 - the effect is multiplied if they failed to drop a resource on one of the early turns. I have played Helwen in a Mezzik Darkspark combo deck but I will give hte edge to Morfiel as i can see this pet sneaking into quite a few of my warlock builds.

Infernal vs Doomguard
Infernal was my favorite card early on. I liked the area of effect damage dealt at the end of each turn and with a 6 attack value and Radak Doombringer's flip power you can deal 12 damage in a single turn. With 6 Health he is pretty much guaranteed to be a 2 for 1 exchange and with 6 Attack he can take out almost anything. His only drawbacks were a high resource cost of 6 and a potentially high upkeep cost - discard one card or he his given to another player. Late game the upkeep payment for Infernal can be a bit of a problem but if this is your winning condition you should be able to hold onto him long enough to win the game. Doomguard is more expensive at 7 resources but his payment cost can be devastating. When Doomguard enters play a random friendly character is destroyed. This could include your hero ending the game with a loss. If your hero survives the processes you get a monster 8 Attack and 8 Health ally in play that destroys target ally at the end of your turn. I will probably split deck space between Infernal and Doomguard and will add in a few more little allies to help increase the odds of surviving playing Doomguard.

When I started looking at the Warlock pets I was thinking I would have to conclude with who "wins" old school with Sarmoth and Infernal or new school with Morfiel and Doomguard. Now that I have spent some time looking at these pets the winner is the warlock class. Anyone who wants to play a warlock can build a pretty effective deck. Rush decks with Sarmoth and Grimdron and Piztog. Control decks with Sarmoth and Morfiel and Helwen. A power beat down with Sarmoth and Infernal and Doomguard. The big conclusion I have found is that Sarmoth is the best pet getting the player at worst a one card and one turn advantage and potentially mush more. So for the warlock heroes out there, use your pets wisely.

Note: I have reviewed the cards linked in this article on tNook. If you disagree with my assessments, feel free to post your own reviews of the cards on tNook and post a response here telling me how wrong I am.

Google "Office"

2007-04-18T10:22:00.000-06:00

I have been using Google docs since it was Writely. I am starting to put more and more of my documents into Google docs.

Although I still use Open Office for many docs, I try and use Google for as many applications as I can. The functionality for the documents in Google Docs is growing and they recently added charts to the spreadsheets.

As more tools and features are added to the "web 2.0" tools there is less and less reason from me to have a USB drive and thick client applications.

I plan to use Google Docs for NaNoWriMo again this year and tonight I will more a few more open office spreadsheets up to Gogole as the charts can now be built online.

Arena League - Week 7. The week I hide my shame

2007-04-13T10:10:00.000-06:00

Last week after going 2 weeks for a combined total of 10 - 8 I decided to have a little fun and make my picks then flip a coin and see who is smarter - me or a coin.

A quick breakdown - head to "heads or tails":
Columbus Destroyers 51 at Dallas Desperados 53
My Pick: Dallas (1-0) vs Coin picks: Dallas (1-0)

Utah Blaze 64 at Austin Wranglers
My Pick: Wranglers (2-0) vs Coin Picks: Wranglers (2-0)

Arizona Rattlers 45 at Los Angeles Avengers 64
My Pick: Rattlers (2-1) vs Coin Picks: Avengers (3-0)
Great the might coin pulls ahead of me...

Colorado Crush 44 at San Jose SaberCats 72
The Crush visit California and get a much needed win in San Jose.
My Pick: Crush(2-2) vs Coin Picks: Crush (3-1)

New York Dragons 53 at Grand Rapids Rampage 66
My Pick: Dragons (2-3) vs Coin Picks: Grand Rapids (4-1)
I would be embarrassed but it is a remarkably bright coin.

New Orleans VooDoo 43 at Tampa Bay Storm 66
The struggling storm find a way to defeat the visiting VooDoo.
My Pick: Storm (3-3) vs Coin Picks: VooDoo (4-2)

Chicago Rush 66 at Nashville Kats 54
My Pick: Rush (4-3) vs Coin Picks: Nashville (4-3)
Peanut Butter Jelly time! I get back even with the coin!

Kansas City Brigade 65 at Las Vegas Gladiators 31
The Gladiators will be able to handle the Brigade at hope to pull back to 500 on the year.
My Pick: Gladiators (4-4) vs Coin Picks: Galdiators (4-4)

Georgia Force 57 at Philadelphia Soul 49
My Pick: Force (5-4) vs Coin Picks: Soul (4-5)
So after a weekend of pretty good football ruined for me because of the fear of being out done by a quarter I end up with the same crap-tacular record of 5 and 4 sinking my season of mediocrity to 31 and 19.

So how bad will it be THIS week? This week a friend of mine who doesn't watch or follow arena league has agreed to make his picks.

My picks for the week
San Jose SaberCats (4-1) at New Orleans VooDoo (2-4)
The VooDoo started string but are struggling now. San Jose visits the big easy and wins the game.
Me: San Jose vs Chris: San Jose

Los Angeles Avengers (2-3) at Utah Blaze (4-2)
The Avengers put up 64 last week against a weak Rattlers team. I will call for the upset and give a third loss to Utah.
Me: Avengers vs Chris: Utah

Austin Wranglers (3-3) at Columbus Destroyers (1-4)
Austin comes to Ohio and beats the Destroyers - after losing last week to Dallas and this week to Austin many Columbus fans start to say bad things about Texas.
Me: Austin vs Chris: Austin

Tampa Bay Storm (1-5) at Orlando Predators (3-2)
In a rematch of a game from week 1. In week on the Predators took it to the Storm and won easily. This week the Predators will win again but the Storm keep it closer.
Me: Storm vs Chris: Tampa

Grand Rapids Rampage (2-3) at Kansas City Brigade (3-2)
Grand Rapids beat New York last week. This week they face a much better team in the Brigade. The Brigade, coming off a big win in Las Vegas will be more than the Rampage can handle. Kansas City come out with another big win.
Me: Kansas City vs Chris: Grand Rapids

Nashville Kats (2-4) at Arizona Rattlers (1-5))
Early in the season I though the Rattlers would be in the pack by mid season but they have struggled to put up wins. Nashville who is also having a poor season gets what it needs a trip to the desert and a win.
Me: Nashville vs Chris: Arizona

Colorado Crush (3-3) at New York Dragons (1-4)
My woeful Dragons serve up another win to a visiting team.
Me: Crush vs Chris: Colorado

Las Vegas Gladiators (2-4) at Georgia Force (5-1)
The Gladiators lost last week to the Brigade and there fortunes will not be any better against the powerful Force. Georgia continues to chase Dallas for the league's best record.
Me: Force vs Chris: Georgia

Philadelphia Soul (4-1) at Dallas Desperados (6-0)
I had circled this game as a potential loss for Dallas but after the play of Philly last week I have to once again play it safe and pick the dominant Desperados. Some one will beat Dallas this year but I don't think it will be the Soul.
Me: Dallas vs Chris: Dallas

Chicago Rush (5-1) have the bye

tNook - Trade Anything With Anyone

2007-04-13T09:01:00.000-06:00

I am really excited about tNook (disclosure - I am good friends with and I am related to the owner). I have been working with it for over 6 months and it seems to me to be an interesting and effective means to track and trade your collection online.

I only use one tNook - World of Warcraft Trading Cards, but there are currently five tNooks:
Comic Books
HeroClix
VS
Wizkids Pirates
World of Warcraft
and more tNooks are coming. You can also request a new tNook if the one you want is not there.

I have been posting reviews here and on tNook reviews for cards in the Heros of Azeroth set for the card game. I am going to continue to review cards and items on tNook. And if anyone doesn't like my tNook reviews they can always post their own as any tNook member can post reviews and rating for items on tNook. Here I am going to change and start posting a regular post called Old School and New School. These posts will continue to reference reviews that I will be posting on the tNook site but they will combine a couple of related cards together and review not only the card but a look at a comparison in the cards. For the most part the reviews on tNook will focus on the cards while the posts here will discuss and compare similar powers and effects from one set to the next.

I primarily use tNook to keep track of what I have in my collection, in what I want, and what I am willing to trade. Right now with the release of the Dark Portal set for World of Warcraft I am busy updating my collection and adding all the new cards into my collection. I am also reviewing what I want to put up for trade and what I need to list in my wants. One great feature is the tNook match. Each night tNook looks to see who has items for trade that I have listed in my wants. This is a great tool for me so I do not have to constantly look for people that have added new items to their trade list. I can also manually run this matching process afcter I have added items to my trade or want list.

I am constantly amazed at the implementation from the tNook team. I make comments about the interface and in a week or less in some cases the changes are in place and ready to use.

The only down side I can find in the site is that there are not enough people using it for World of Warcraft. I think there are only 5 people with their World of Warcraft cards in the system - but that is most likely because World of Warcraft is new, the more established tNooks like Comics and HeroClix have more users and more traffic. So go and sign up, put in your cards and lets get trading!

Kurt is up in Heaven now

2007-04-12T10:47:00.001-06:00

I just read a post that shocked me. I was looking at Indexed and I thought that Jessica Hagy had captured perfectly the wit of Kurt Vonnegut. I tagged the post and moved on. Then I started to notice that in my RSS reader there were a number of Vonnegut posts and references.
I knew it wasn't Mr. Vonnegut's birthday so I was a bit surprised that a whole bunch of people decided to write about him at once. Then I got to Cory Doctorow's post on Boing Boing. I am not a fan of Mr. Vonnegut's work like I am of someone like George R. R. Martin or Douglas Adams and as a Catholic I do not agree with his religious beliefs. However, I have read Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat's Cradle several times. Both books are brilliant and timeless and should be read by everyone at least once in their lives. I find myself completely entranced by the Bokonon and by Billy Pilgrim. Every time I re-read these stories I find myself time traveling back to when I was a young man, reading Mr. Vonnegut's words for the first time.

I am sure everyone has heard the urban myth commencement address falsely attributed to Mr. Vonnegut. For many that was the first and only thing they have read by this wonderful author - which is unfortunate as he had so much more to say to the world. I am happy that that particular Internet myth swept through as it reminded me of Mr. Vonnegut's work and I went back and read Cat's Cradle again.

On a weekend I was planning to read all about Carl Sagan in Skeptic and maybe finish off the latest On Spec magazine I think I might find myself back on the island of San Lorenzo.

Kurt is up in Heaven now.

Soul Link

2007-04-06T17:39:00.000-06:00

As a warlock you should really consider having a Soul Link in your deck. This Demonology Hero Only (Radak Doombringer and Zenith Shadowforce) ability allows you to place a damage onto an ally in your party to prevent 1 damage to your hero this turn.

This can be used defensively (obviously) but also on offense. If you attack with Ya'mon then buff his attack by putting a couple of damage on him (Ya'mon has +1 Atk for each damage on him). You can buff Blood Guard Mal'wani in the same way. CArds like Arnold Flem and Vexra Darkfall can be damaged to activate thier destruction effects. If only Life tap damage could be prevented...

Overall this 4 cost ability is a pretty good card to pack in a warlock deck.

This post was posted both as a review on tNook and as a Church of the Game post.

Local World of Warcraft Sneak Preview

2007-04-05T21:36:00.000-06:00

Recently Gamers Lair held a sneak preview sealed deck compitition for Dark Portal expansion fo the World of Warcraft the card game.

Stormtiger gives his view of the event here.

I was the judge at this event so I can't say how much fun it was to play in the event but anyoine i have talked to has mentioned that it was a great time. The only bad thing at the event was the tournament software failed after the first round so myself and the store owner had to manually pair the remaining rounds. Then after the tournament I had to manually calculate the tie breakers.
It was exciting to see the new set and watch as the players opened their packs and looked through for the card that might be a game winner. I got to see a lot of new cards as players asked me how the powers would be affected.

Through out the afternoon I was called a couple of times to rule on plays. So far I have only found two errors I made during the tournament.

1. Someone asked me the effect a card IN HIS HAND would have when he played it. I told him the card would be unaffected by an ability in play on his opponents side of the board. This was incorrect as I was NOT judging but advising the player. The correct course of action would ahve been to tell him I could not rule until he played the card.

2. The length of the effect of Korthas Greybeard's effect. "Exhaust: Prevent the next 1 damage that would be dealt to target hero or ally."

I ruled that the effect lasts until the end of turn but according to the comprehensive rules
"714.3 A continuous modifier from a link usually has a specified duration. If no duration is specified, that modifier lasts until the game ends."

Fortunately neither of theses mistakes meant the difference in a game.

Next time I hope to have a camera and do a better job of recording the experience. I the meantime stormtiger did a great job chronicling his experience.

Regionals will be back at Gamers Lair in June and weekly tournaments are held on Wednesday nights.

Multi-Shot

2007-04-05T21:17:00.000-06:00

When you absolutely need to clean the board there are few options that work as well as a Multi-Shot. Multi-Shot is a 5 resource Hunter instant ability that deals 2 damage to up to 3 targets. Parvink, Ka'tali Stonetusk, and Warden Tonarian are all cheap protectors. But even Warden's elusive will not save them from the damage dealt by a Multi-Shot.

I like this card as a mid to late game answer to allies on the field. It clears the way for Fury to attack or it sweeps the field clean to remove threats to your hero. Either way the value of the card is difficult to overlook.

I can say without any fear of exaggeration that Multi-Shot won me a match at a regionals tournament. My opponent had brought out a Parvink from his graveyard and had the opportunity to recurse a second via a Medoc Spiritwarden (He chose to put some armor on the field instead). When my turn came I was able to remove his little gnome protector and deal an additional 2 damage to his hero. After that there was nothing he could do to stop me from using Fury or Sentry Gwynn from taking his hero out.

For a hunter deck, the value of Multi-Shot should not be overlooked.

This post was posted both as a review on tNook and as a Church of the Game post.

Arena League Football, Week 6 - Or the week I challenge a coin.

2007-04-05T18:10:00.000-06:00

Some quick hits to post before the games starts tonight. I was horrid again last week going only 5-4 for the second straight week. Although I was close on some game that I picked wrong. THis leaves me with a 26 and 15 record for the year. My goal this week is to be better than a coin flip (heads = home team).

Columbus Destroyers(1-3) at Dallas Desperados(5-0)
Dallas continues to roll over the competition and finishes the week at 6-0.
Coin picks: Dallas

Utah Blaze(4-1) at Austin Wranglers(2-3)
The Wranglers gave the Desperados a scare last week. This week they defeat the visiting Blaze.
Coin Picks: Wranglers

Arizona Rattlers(1-4) at Los Angeles Avengers(2-2)
The Avengers give a solid performance but lose a close game to the Rattlers.
Coin Picks: Avengers

Colorado Crush(3-2) at San Jose SaberCats(3-1)
The Crush visit California and get a much needed win in San Jose.
Coin Picks: Crush

New York Dragons(1-3) at Grand Rapids Rampage(1-3)
New York wins a game, New York wins a game... I won't be able to say that very often this year so I just had to say it twice.
EDIT:
Coin Picks: Grand Rapids
Original:
Coin Picks: Heads

New Orleans VooDoo(2-3) at Tampa Bay Storm(0-5)
The struggling storm find a way to defeat the visiting VooDoo.
Coin Picks: VooDoo

Chicago Rush(4-1) at Nashville Kats(2-3)
I have become a believer in the Rush. I thought they were over rated earlier in the season but they will defeat the Kats.
Coin Picks: Nashville

Kansas City Brigade(2-2) at Las Vegas Gladiators(2-3)
The Gladiators will be able to handle the Brigade at hope to pull back to 500 on the year.
Coin Picks: Galdiators

Georgia Force(4-1) at Philadelphia Soul(4-0)
The Soul lose their first game to the Force.
Coin Picks: Soul

Orlando (3-2) has the bye this week.

Week 5 - Arena Football League

2007-03-30T15:36:00.000-06:00

Week 5 starts tonight.

As much as I would like to forget week 4 (5-4 for the week and 21 and 11 for the year) lets take a look at what happened. No one should be surprised that Dallas and Philadelphia both won. Georgia won but only by two points against San Jose. The big surprises for me were the Avengers beating the VooDoo. New Orleans is playing very well and I didn't think they would have any problems with the Los Angeles team. Of course nothing could have been as shocking as seeing the New York Dragons win one in Florida. Not only did the Dragons (my favorite team) prove that they can win without Andy Garcia they drop perennial contender Tamp Bay to 0-4.

I only go to see part of the first have of the Dragons game. I was pleasantly surprised by the play of Rohan Davey. He played a pretty solid game and got the Dragons into the win column. I still think that the Dragons will struggle waiting for Garcia to return from injury but they might be able to complete if Davey continues to improve his game.

Week 5 looks to have some really good match ups and the separation between the great teams and the merely good will continue.

Georgia Force(4-0) at Columbus Destroyers(1-2)
The Force come into Columbus with a 4-0 record. As much as I like Columbus this year I don't think they can over come the Force. So the Detroyers drop to 1-3 after this match.

Arizona Rattlers(1-3) at Kansas City Brigade(1-2)
Kansas City is playing really well. Well enough to beat the Rattlers.

Orlando Predators(2-2) at New Orleans VooDoo(2-2)
Orlando gets back above the 500 mark by winning in New Orleans.

Austin Wranglers(2-2) at Dallas Desperados(4-0)
Mike Rose picks Austin to defeat Dallas in a monster upset. This battle of Texas is going to be a battle from start to finish. Dallas is so powerful I am starting to wonder if anyone will be able to beat them this season. I am going to go out on a limb and side with Mike Rose. Austin wins to drop teh Desperadoes to 4 and 1.

Tampa Bay Storm(0-4) at San Jose SaberCats(2-1)
Something is very wrong in Tampa Bay. I can't see them leaving San Jose with a win. San Jose will translate some strong play especially on defense into a win against the struggling Storm.

Philadelphia Soul(3-0) at New York Dragons(1-2)
Does New York have enough to upset the Soul? I don't think so. The Dragons will do better than the 60-7 shelling they took from Dallas but they will not be able to beat the Soul.

Los Angeles Avengers(2-1)) at Chicago Rush(3-1)
Okay I am starting to believe in the Rush. I will take Chicago to beat the Avengers in a close scoring game.

Nashville Kats(2-2) at Colorado Crush(2-2)
Nashville beats the Crush to go from a 0-2 team to a 3-2 team. Expect a big game from Dan Alexander for the Kats.

Utah Blaze(3-1) at Las Vegas Gladiators(2-2)
Utah continues to shine and goes to Vegas and defeats the Gladiators by a big margin.

Grand Rapids Rampage(1-3) has the bye

Wraith Scythe

2007-03-28T14:05:00.001-06:00

Wraith Scythe is a very useful weapon, and one of the few healing option available for the Hunter and Warrior. While anyone can heal with Freya Lightsworn or Deacon Joanna the options for healing without resorting to allies is limited outside of the Priest and Paladin classes.

A bit pricy at 4 resources but relatively cheap with a strike cost of 2. As this weapon deals 2 damage and heals 2 damage (without any modifiers) that is really a 4 point swing. And by allowing your hero to heal this axe opens up some attacks that might have been avoided without it. It has enough power to destroy Parvink and heals enough to negate the Gnome protectors attack.

If a Warrior manages to equip this axe, drops a couple of Demoralizing Shouts and then adds a Heroic Strike - suddenly the axe is dealing 5 damage and healing for 5 damage. If attacking an ally the Demoralizing Shouts reduce the damage being dealt back. A couple of turns of that kind of muscle and anyone will be looking for a way to neutralize this weapon.

I can't see this axe supplanting Annihilator as a staple in most solo decks - but it should remain a solid second or third choice among players that are looking for weapons.

This post was posted both as a review on tNook and as a Church of the Game post.

Caught Off-Guard

2007-03-27T17:41:00.001-06:00

Caught Off-Guard is a pretty basic (and common) ability card. For a cost of 1 it allows you to reduce the attack of one target by 2.

I have never seen this played in a competitive tournament but I have faced it a couple of times in casual play. It is a nice common card that unfortunately doesn't see a lot of play because so many other cards seem to bump it out of decks during construction. The biggest benefit for this card is that it lasts the entire turn so once played it will reduce all the attacks form that source. So played against a Feral Thangral, or a Windseer Tarus, or a Galeway Steamwhistle buffed Warrax the effect will carry over to the second (and in some cases third and fourth) attacks as well.

I can't see this card getting a lot of play because it just doesn't give you a lot of bang for your buck.

This post was posted both as a review on tNook and as a Church of the Game post.

Stronghold Gauntlets

2007-03-27T16:50:00.001-06:00

Stronghold Gauntlets are a a crucial piece of equipment. I faced a warrior at regionals that used these gloves to do some serious damage. This armour card not only gives you 1 damage prevention they also give your weapons +1 attack and block your opponent from targeting your weapons for removal. All that for only 3 resources.

I had problems finding ready answers for my opponent once these hit the table. It meant that playing out something like Moria Darkheart or Shattering Blow only got rid of the gauntlets and left the weapon on the field ready to do more damage.

I would rank this card as one of three that should be in any warrior deck. Along with Deathbringer and Deathdealer Breastplate this is a card that will make a warrior deck something to contend with. For someone like me that does not play a warrior or paladin one redeeming quality for the card is that it is limited to those two classes.

This post was posted both as a review on tNook and as a Church of the Game post.

Lessons Learned: Regionals

2007-03-27T12:53:00.001-06:00

I finished 6th overall at the regionals last weekend.

This is frankly better than I expected to do as my deck is not a powerful deck. I played an Elendril rush deck but I tried to beef it up and remove some of the weenie elements. I did not want to play a cookie cutter Elendril deck, but there are elements of the deck that work well. I ran a very ally heavy deck with 4 furys and 4 Bloodclaws. I also had limited abilities. 4 Aimed Shots were ready for a late game push or for instant ally removal.

Round 1: Gorebelly. I was a little worried as I have played this player before but I had never faced his solo warrior deck. I started out okay, but I knew that the early turns would be in my favor as he built up. I managed to rack up quite a bit of damage but I stalled late in the game and could not get the final damage done. His buffed weapons tore through my defense and I did not have a late game answer. Game two went much the same way as game one, but I was able to clear away some of his weapons but I was blocked from doing any real damage by his armor. I managed to come away with the victory because an aimed shot top decked and I did just enough to end the game. Game three did not go my way. I did not get any early game advantage and again his weapons started tearing through my allies. He also got defense up early that negated any attack I might have mounted. A feeble late game surge did not do enough to allow me to get a victory. So match one ended and I had a 0-1 record.

Round 2: Timmo. I know this player and deck very well. We play at least one a week and sometimes as many as 5 or 6 times a week. The first game went perfectly in my favor. My opponent made a tactical error when he got threw and did damage but did not have the resources to poison my hero. He conceded when I had enough board control to defeat his hero and he had no defense available. Game two I got a near perfect draw. I dropped multiple allies turn two and turn three and even with my opponent destroying allies as fast as he could I had a overwhelming board advantage and was able to rush my was to the victory. At the end of round 2 I was 1-1.

Round 3: Warrax. This was actually a type of mirror match. We both had rush decks. I put myself in a huge hole when I misplayed and was assessed (correctly assessed) a game loss penalty in game 1 of the match. I was very worried as we started game 2. I drew poorly and after a mulligan had a below average hand. I managed to weather an early Latro and Teep attack and took control of the board. Late game I managed to top deck Aimed shot again and evened the match. I drew well for game three and started out with a lot of small allies. My opponent cleared the board but I was able to keep grinding away. I used two Aimed shots to take out 1 health healing allies. Late game I had Fury and Sentry Gwynn out. he was very low on health so was looking to block my final attack. He top decked Skullflame Shield and played it and a Parvink. He later expressed that he should have taken a second Parvink from his graveyard and put it on the board. It would not have mattered. I was sitting with a Multi-Shot. I pulled a card, laid it as a resource and hit his hero for 2 and destroyed his Parvink. He conceded the game as once Parvink was destroyed either Gwynn or Fury would do enough to finish his hero. This was a significant match for me as it was the first time I have beaten someone at a tournament that is not part of my gaming group. After round 3 I was 2-1.

Round 4 (final round): Sen'zir. I have played against this deck before and had not performed very well at all. This match did not take long, nor did I put up much of a fight. I was defeated on turn seven of the first game, and after turn six of the second. I could not keep allies on the field as he managed to clear any threat I managed to bring out. I tried stalling late in game two but he was able to remove any obstacles and deal me a lot of hurt. So the day ended with me at 2-2.

So I finished 6th over all.

So I came away with a very nice Zy'lah playmat and some new goals. I want to finish a tournament over the .500 mark. I think I might have been able to do that playing a more traditional weenie rush, but I still want to play a more powerful deck, and be able to withstand a few Frost Nova like splash effects. The competition was a bit more serious compared to the other tournaments I have played in. I was issued a warning (illegal play - targeting a weapon when stronghold gauntlets were in play) and got the game loss penalty for my moronic mistake with Parvink on turn two. Going forward I think I need to put a few more defensive cards in to answer for the solo decks and perhaps that Arcanite Reaper can find a place in my hunter deck.

Overall it was a lot of fun.

Unfortunately I could not stay for the Lazy Peon tourney that followed the regionals. I think I will build a lazy peon deck around Radak or Dizdemona and see how it performs.

Starfire

2007-03-23T10:36:00.000-06:00

Starfire was my first rare card. I got it in my first starter (Moonshadow). I was quite excited as I looked through that first deck. I built my first strategy around Starfire as a game winning condition.

I like this card. Other than Pyroblast it is the highest direct damage ability in the game. Other cards like Backstab can do more damage but they rely on other cards or effects to be in place to be able to do that kind of damage. Chain Lightning and Multi-Shot do more damage (6 each) but they spread the damage over multiple targets.

So Starfire is the biggest ability you can pack in the game. At a cost of 5 it is a little expensive but there are not many allies that can withstand the damage inflicted by Starfire, in the Heroes of Azeroth set only 13 allies (not counting Tewa Wildmane) have 6 or more health. And you get to draw a card to boot. The biggest limitation is that it is not an instant, so you need to play it during your turn and you can't use it to respond to a big threat.

One interesting Moonshadow combo available is Starfire and Nature's Swiftness. On turn 3 you can play Nature's Swiftness for 3, which allows you to play your next card for 5 less than the regular cost. A big 5 damage Starfire on turn three can really put a dent into your opponents plans.

Contrary to my first plans Starfire is not an effective victory condition. It can help with pesky cards like Lady Jaina Proudmoore. In my druid deck I run a couple for ally removel in the mid to late game stages. It can be as good as a vanquish against most decks and can turn the tide of battle.

This post was posted both as a review on tNook and as Churchof the Game post.

Vesh'ral

2007-03-23T06:15:00.000-06:00

Vesh'ral is one of the most valuable allies in horde rush decks. He is fairly cheap at a cost on only 3 and with 3 Attack he can do some damage. With Ferocity he can start dealing the hurt as soon as you play him.

However, Vesh'ral is on the weak side as this troll mage has only 1 Health. This leaves him open to the mass damage effects of Frost Nova and the Skullflame Sheild. So although he can dish out the damage he just can't take it.

It is pretty easy to see why this card is popular in many players decks. You play him on turn 3 and start hammering away at your opponent. It doesn't matter that he is easy to kill, with an attack of 3 he is usually a 1 for 1 trade.

Of the ferocious allies Vesh'ral is my pick for an early game card because of his big attack and with a protector in play to keep him around he can become a problem to your opponent. An effective grouping is Vesh'ral with Voss Treebender and Guardian Steelhorn. You use Voss Treebender to get Vesh'ral through protectors to your opponents hero and Guardian Steelhorn to keep Vesh'ral around for a turn or two.

This post was posted both as a review on tNook and as Church of the Game post.

Arena Football Week 4

2007-03-22T12:49:00.000-06:00

Looking Back
Week 3 had some excellent matches. Unfortunately only got to see the second half of one game on AFLNet, the rest of the games I only got to see recaps or read about the results and this weekend looks to be the same as I have several events to attend on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

I wish I would have been able to watch either the Dallas or Nashville game last week. Dan Alexander (Nashville) and Josh White (Dallas) both had 5 rushing touchdowns. I don't think I have ever seen 5 rushing touchdowns in a game never mind by a single player. I think this is a direct result of the new substitution rules.

Looking Forward

Week 3 was a much better week for me. After spending the time to look at the matchups I went 6 and 1. This gives me a record on the year of 16 and 7. Unfortunately as I write this the ArenaFootball.com site is still featuring a lot of Week 3 content so my research for many of these games is limited. I never realized how much I relied on the information I could get from the arena football site until this week.

Colorado Crush(2-1) at Philadelphia Soul(2-0)
The soul have not done well against the Crush in the past but a strong defensive effort will allow the Soul to defeat the crush in this weeks Thursday night game.

New York Dragons(0-2) at Tampa Bay Storm(0-3)
In this someone has to win game it is quite simple - no Garcia means no win for the Dragons.

Grand Rapids Rampage(1-2) at Utah Blaze(2-1)
Michael Bishop makes his Rampage debut. Utah is doing very well. I am going to go out on a limb and go with Grand Rapids for the upset.

Las Vegas Gladiators(1-2) at Arizona Rattlers(0-3)
Both the Gladiators and the Rattlers come into this game after losing in Week 3. This is the week the Rattlers get into the win column.

Chicago Rush(2-1) at Columbus Destroyers(1-1)
The Destroyers come off the bye and host the defending champion Chicago Rush. I keep seeing Chicago high in the power poll, but I don't see why. Sure they won it all last year but they were only 7 and 9 in the regular season. I will take the Destroyers over the Rush this week.

San Jose SaberCats(1-1) at Georgia Force(3-0)
Even this early in the season there is a lot of talk about the Dallas Deperadoes but the Force are also a team to watch. Even though San Jose is 5th in the Week 4 power poll, I think Georgia is too strong for San Jose and wins this one by a large margin.

Los Angeles Avengers(1-1) at New Orleans VooDoo(2-1)
The VooDoo are playing extremely well. I think that while the Avengers are playing well they will not be able to beat the VooDoo this week.

note: Looking at the stats for the Avengers they seem to have had the bye last week, but apparently so did the Columbus Destroyers and the San Jose SabreCats.

Nashville Kats(1-2) at Austin Wranglers(1-2)
I will take the Kats to upset the Wranglers this week, proving that I don't hold a grudge against a team that beat the Utah Blaze and kept me form being 7 and 0 last week. The Kats have a great defense and I think this week they can head to Texas and return home with a 2-2 record.

Dallas Desperados(3-0) at Orlando Predators(2-1)
This will be a real battle. It is also probably the toughest game to pick this week. Orlando is a very good team and I would pick them to win against almost any team this week. However, Dallas is too goods and is going to win a close game against the Predators.

Kansas City(1-2) has the bye this week.

Kor Cindervein

2007-03-22T09:16:00.000-06:00

This is the first in series of short card reviews for theWorld of Warcraft Trading Card Game.

Kor Cindervein seems to be a pretty plain Alliance ally. A simple 3 resource ally with 3 attack and 3 health. This Dwarf Paladin is included as part of the Moonshadow,Timmo, Elendril, and Graccus starter decks (from Heroes of Azeroth Set). At first glance this common card seems pretty boring and uninspiring. However, if you look at the card more closely Kor does have some good in game value.

While Kor does not have any fancy powers he is a valuable assets.

With 3 attack he will take out a significant list of allies on a one for one trade. Of the 52 alliance allies 29 have 3 or fewer health, on the horde side 34 of the 52 allies have 3 or fewer health, and 8 of the 12 neutral allies and pets have 3 or fewer health. Some significant allies that fall into this category are Latro Abiectus, Parvink, Tristan Rapidstrike, Confessor Mildred, Guardian Steelhorn, Vaerik Proudhoof, Windseer Tarus, Fury, Helwen, Landro Longshot, Saltwater Snapjaw, and Thunderhead Hippogryph.
With 3 health he is above the damage threshold of Fire Blast, Frost Nova, Frost Shock, Multi-Shot, and Skullflame Shield he also performs well against Chain Lightning, Cleave, and Sinister Strike.

So if you are concerned that your Apprentice Teep and Sha'lin Nightwind will be vulnerable to any of the "deal 1 damage to all allies" effects then consider this dwarf as a replacement. I pulled Apprentice Teep from a deck I am building for regionals and I have been happy with Kor as a replacement. I did and now I have learned to like this card a lot.

Now that I have played with him I would rate him as a very good support card. He does not supplant Parvink as my favorite 3 resource ally, and he will never be the first ally I think of when building a deck, but I can see now why he was included in so many of the starters. He can be very effective in game even without special effect powers.

This post was posted both as a review on tNook and as Churchof the Game post.

The Show - Ze Frank

2007-03-17T23:47:00.000-06:00

Ze Frank posted his last installment of the show today (first episode - last episode).

As I watch this episode for the third and forth time I am sad to see it go, as it gave me a lot of joy each day. I was not one of the lucky ones that was watching form the very beginning. It was a post on bOingBOing on June 21, 2006 that made me aware of the show and about a month later I started tuning in each day.

I also make note, as I watch this last episode that although I am not a hard charger I am also not really a sports racer. Ze took us all on a tour of his world and invited us to build something. And people did build things. I think what makes me the saddest about the end of the show is that I realize that I am an outsider looking in. As with so many things in my life I took form this community but I did not really contribute anything of merit. I read the forums, but never posted. So in this year long ride that Ze finished today I was an observer instead of a participant.

This strikes me as something I need to be aware of, something I need to act on. I need to start doing more and talking less. I need to become more active and open and outgoing. As I was writing this post i started writing how I would have to go back and watch the older episodes I never got a chance to see... but I think I need to go out and make something instead.

I have finally gotten into a regular habit of posting here, but I need to do more. I need to start interacting.

So I close with a big Thank You Ze! the show was fantastic, and in the end it not only entertained me and made me laugh, but it has opened my eyes and hopefully put me on the road to being a better person.

Lessons Learned

2007-03-16T16:54:00.000-06:00

I am really enjoying the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game.

Now that I have been playing for a while I am starting to see some of the errors I made when I was just starting the game. When I started the game I saw all these cards that allowed you to interact with your graveyard. There are cards that let you pull allies from your graveyard and put them back into play or back into your hand. Cards that pulled allies out of your graveyard (or better yet your opponents graveyard) for an in game effect.

Early on I focused on this aspect of the game. I loaded my decks with 4 Chasing A-Me 01 quests. I had 2 Call the Spirit in every deck I built. I made sure that the horde decks had Ophelia Barrows and alliance decks had Medoc Spiritwarden.

I also put at least 2 Blueleaf Tubers into each deck because I thought that would allow me to reuse cards that I have put into the graveyard earlier in the game. I was thinking... it doesn't matter that I only have 1 Starfire. IF I use it I can always use Blueleaf Tubers and reuse the same card again.

The first lesson learned: focus on your deck not your graveyard.

Then I shifted my focus to abilities. I saw that the abilities had a really big in game effect. Pyroblast, Chain Lightning, Starfire, Healing Touch, all of these can turn a game around. So I started to remove allies from my decks to allow more of these abilities.

Unfortunately, this justified my original mix of graveyard scouring cards. I could put in just a couple of Sarmoths and keep bringing him back again and again. I added a lot of protectors because I could stall the game with them and have some slow burn (Curse of Agony) or big splash (Pyroblast) abilities for a quick end game.

Finally I started to notice that I was being beaten by decks because I was focused on at best stalling techniques and at worst purely defensive mechanics. Stalling can be a valid game strategy but stalling is best suited to take control of the board and then take some action. My decks were stalling and after I had control of the board I didn't really have anything to act with, so I would gain the upper hand and wait for my opponent to take it back. A purely defensive strategy is likewise fairly weak as you are preventing your opponent from winning but you are not making any progress to winning yourself.

Second lesson learned: focus on your victory conditions, not on blocking your opponents victory conditions.

So I have started to rebuild many of my decks nearly from scratch.

I started by looking at the decks that I play against in local tournaments and casually. In tournaments many of the decks I have faced have been rush decks. Casually the decks are more of a mix with more burn decks than I see in tournaments.

So I started by building a Warlock control deck. I started by stripping out the extra quests and abilities that were not giving me some board advantage. I stacked my deck with some bigger allies for my end game, and dropped quite a few protectors. I kept some early game protectors to allow me to develop the game I wanted. I dropped a few of the slow damage over time abilities and pared down the abilities in my deck looking for viable removal.

What I ended up with is a fairly effective warlock deck. I also built the deck so that it could easily switch to horde or alliance.

The next step was to rebuild my hunter. This deck had been quite effective casually but did not preform well at the one tournament I it in. I looked at the deck and again took out the extra quests and the unimportant abilities. I realized when I started rebuilding the deck that I had built a deck that on paper would perfrom well but that did not match my personal play style. SO I started to pull out allies like Apprentice Teep and replace her with bigger allies that would survive a Frostnova or a Skullflame Shield.

So after a few months of playing I am starting to get of the rust on not playing a CCG in many years and I am starting to see the better strategies of the game. I am focusing on my own victory rather than preventing my opponent form working towards his victory. I am concentrating on my deck rather my graveyard. I am also focusing on the current game rather than trying to force the current game into the pattern of previous games.

I find the game tremendously fun to play and I look forward ot the lessons I will learn in up coming tournaments. I look forward to the new expansion and can't wait to see some of the new cards that will be released with the Dark Portal set.

Sneak Preview

2007-03-15T11:49:00.000-06:00

After Regionals Mark at Gamers Lair has a sneak preview of the new Dark Portal expansion set.

March 31st, 2007 9:00 am at Gamers Lair

Sealed Pack with 4 Dark Portal Boosters and 2 Heros of Azeroth boosters.

Looks like I will be spending another Saturday at Gamers Lair.

Ficlets

2007-03-15T11:43:00.000-06:00

A new site for collaborative writing was started recently. Ficlets lets authors write short fiction snippets. The stories grow by others writing sequels and prequels to the existing stories.

Looks like a real fun way to share and build stories.

AFL Week 3

2007-03-15T10:45:00.000-06:00

Week 3 will have some excellent matchups. The Soul visit Grand Rapids in a game that will feature some fantastic offense. Dallas trvels to Kansas City and this year the Desperadoes are going to bring an exciting game no matter where they go. The VooDoo continue to play well representing New Orleans, and they travel this week to Las Vegas for a game with the Gladiators.

I didn't do as much research for week 2 and it showed. My record last week was 3-6 putting me at 10-8 for the year.

Utah Blaze(2-0) at Nashville Kats(0-2)
I really want to pick tha Kats this week but the experts are giving the edge to Utah. Utah has been a suprise this year jumoing out to a 2-0 start. I have to go with the experts and give Utah a third win this season.

Philadelphia Soul(1-0) at Grand Rapids Rampage(1-1)
The soul should win to start the season 2-0. The Soul started the season with a bye but last week were very strong against the Kats. This week the Soul bring their string defence to Grand Rapids and will leave Michigan with a 2-0 record.

Austin Wranglers(1-1) at Orlando Predators(1-1)
Last week the Predators lost in overtime, this week they won't let the game stay that close. Ryan Altizer at arenafootball.com predicts this to be an exciting southwest division battle.

Dallas Desperados (2-0) at Kansas City Brigade(1-1)
Although Mike Rose at arenafootball.com picked Kansas City to upset the Depesperados. I can't see the Brigade pulling the upset the week so I am going to pick safe and put Dallas at 3-0 on the season.

Arizona Rattlers(0-2) at Coloroado Crush(1-1)
Colorado has been very string this year and will make it look easy against the visiting Rattlers.

Georgia Force(2-0) at Tampa Bay Storm(0-2)
The Force travel south to Tampa Bay and will leave the struggling Stgorm with a 0-3 record.

New York Dragons(0-1) at Chicago Rush(1-1)
The Dragons without Garcia are not going to beat anyone. Chicago is not going to have any trouble winning this one. New York is going to wait a while to get a win this year.

New Orleans VooDoo(1-1) at Las Vegas Gladiators(1-1)
The VooDoo win again. The key to the game is going to be defense. A big play, turnonver, or defensive stop will lift the VooDoo to the victory.

Columbus Destroyers(1-1) have a bye this week.

Regionals Are Here

2007-03-08T17:19:00.000-07:00

I really like the World of Warcraft card game and I am very excited that the regionals are coming to Edmonton. Gamers Lair will be hosting regionals On March 24, 2007.

I can't wait. I am building decks for both the regional tourney and the lazy peon events.

AFL Week 2

2007-03-08T16:25:00.000-07:00

Looking back at Week 1 I noticed a few things.
The new substitutions rules has made the game better. Teams can put in running packages and the ironmen have been made less important to teams. Being able to play both ways will still be an important part of the game but you won't see anymore games with back up quarterbacks playing defensive line.

The Dallas Desperados are THAT good. I thought Dallas would be a good team this year but after destroying the Dragons in week one they showed me and others that they will be the team to beat in 2007. I'll have to see if the Dragons are that bad. in a sport where a couple of defensive stops can win you the game they went most of the game without being able to score. I only saw parts of the game on TV but I don't remember the Dragons getting a first down.

The games I saw (on ABC on Sunday) and online with AFLNet were great. A lot of offense and energy. I am looking forward to seeing more games. Unfortunately I don't think many more games will be on TV locally so AFLNet will be my source for games for the next while.

My picks for this week (My record for the year is 7-2)
Las Vegas Gladiators (0-1) at Grand Rapids Rampage (1-0)
The Gladiators lost by 21 to the Wranglers last week and will lose by at least 15 the Rampage this week.

Columbus Destroyers (1-0) @ New Orleans VooDoo (0-1)
Many of the experts are picking New Orleans. I think that Matt Nagy will lead the Destroyers to a victory over the VooDoo.

Philadelphia Soul (0-0) at Nashville Kats (0-1)
With Philadelphia having a bye last week they have their first game in week two of the season. Just like the Destroyers last week the Soul will leave Nashville with a win - dropping the Kats to 0 and 2.

San Jose SaberCats (0-1) @ Chicago Rush (0-1)
Chicago is the defending champion but they were only 7 and 9 last season. Chicago struggled with Kansas City last week and will be hard pressed to defeat the SaberCats. Unfortunately Chicago will have to wait another week for their first win of the season as San Jose gets its first win of the year.

Kansas City Brigade (1-0) @ Coloroado Crush (0-1)
Kansas City looks to build on a victory over the defending champs while Colorado will try to overcome a 2 point loss to Grand Rapids. The experts at areanfootball.com all pick the Crush but I think Kansas can pull an upset and defeat the Crush.

Utah Blaze (1-0) @ Arizona Rattlers (0-1)
Utah barely defeated the Voo Doo last week and will be hard pressed to beat the Rattlers. Arizona was dominated in a high scoring game against Georgia in week one. Arizona will be able to upset the Blaze and will take the game leaving both teams with a 1-1 record.

Tampa Bay Storm (0-1) @ Dallas Desperados (1-0)
I thought that Dallas would win a close game last week against the Dragons. Dallas showed me how dominant they could be against a undermanned New York team. This week Dallas hosts Tampa and will win again. It looks like Dallas is the team to beat early in the season and the Storm will be looking to crack the Dallas defense that held New York off the scoreboard for more than 40 minutes last week.

Austin Wranglers (1-0) at Georgia Force (1-0)
Georgia managed to score 69 points last week. They will have a harder time scoring this week against the Wranglers but will still score enough to get a second straight win.

Los Angeles Avenges (1-0) at Orlando Predators (1-0)
The Predators had a solid game in Tampa Bay last week and Shane Stafford will give his new team a 2 and 0 start with a win over Los Angeles.

New York gets the bye this week, but judging from their performance last week they might still get a loss this weekend.

Sunday's Games

2007-03-03T22:59:00.000-07:00

Another quick one - I'll put up a more in depth post Monday.

5 games Sunday
Dallas Desperadoes at New York Dragons. New York 69 Dallas 72
Chicago Rush at Kansas City Brigade. Chicago 66 Brigade 42

Grand Rapids Rampage at Colorado Crush. Grand Rapids 54 Colorado 49
Las Vegas Gladiators at Austin Wranglers. Gladiators 49 Austin 56

San Jose SaberCats at Los Angeles Avengers. San Jose 45 Los Angeles 59

This season I am 3-1

Georgia at Arizona and New Orleans at Utah

2007-03-03T20:12:00.000-07:00

Real short post...

Georgia over Arizona 54 - 49
New Orleans loses to Utah 52 - 42

So far this year I am 2-0

Destroyers at Kats

2007-03-02T12:13:00.000-07:00

The opening game of the season was a penalty filled affair. The teams combined for 12 penalties in the first half. Nashville dominated the play in the first half but went into halftime down 31-29. Columbus was able to have the halftime lead in large part due to their special team play. Kick returns by Damien Groce and Josh Bush allowed the the Destroyers to have 3 touchdown drives that covered less than 40 yards combined.

Late in the first half Columbus nearly had a huge defensive stop but Nashville managed to convert on a 4th and short and score a 57 yard field goal.

Columbus came out of the half and dominated the Kats. After the Kats scored before the halftime break, Columbus scored 16 straight points. A big defensive stop 9 minutes into the second half gave Columbus all the momentum. Columbus dominated the third quarter finishing the quarter up 44 to 29.

Nashville opened the forth quarter converting on a 4th and 10 to extend a drive and finishing the drive with Dan Alexanders 3rd rushing touchdown of the game. The Kats got right back into the game by getting a defensive stop when the Kats defense sacked Destroyer QB Matt Nagy on 3rd and 10 to force a field goal try of 62 or 63 yards. With the field goal attempt going into the stands Nashville started on the 20 yard line and score to pull within 2.

Nashville looked to go ahead with a successful onside kick but another penalty nullified the onside kick recovery and game the ball back to Columbus. Maty Nagy quickly found Damien Groce for Groce's third TD of the game.

Nashville scored a late touchdown to make it close but Columbus was able to hold on and start the season with a road victory.

Columbus next at New Orleans March 9, 2007 20:00 EST
Nashville next vs Philadelphia March 9, 2007 20:00 EST

Tonight Orlando and Tampa Bay play in Tampa. Orlando lost 69-54 to Chicago in last years Arena Bowl while the Storm missed the playoffs finishing with 7 wins and 9 loses. This is one of arena footballs most heated rivalries, which makes the move of QB Shane Stafford from the Storm to the Predators even more surprising. He will travel with the Predators and take on his former team.

Wayne Morris from ArenaFootball.com gives the edge to Orlando. I have to agree. Orlando 62 over Tampa 49.

My season record 1-0

AFL Season Opener

2007-03-01T12:26:00.000-07:00

Tonight the new AFL Season starts with the Columbus Destroyers visiting the Nashville Kats. You can expect the high scores and exciting play that is the hallmark of the Arena Football League. Both teams finished last year with 8 wins and 8 loses. Columbus missed the playoffs - but set a team record for wins in a season - while the Kats made the playoffs but lost in the wild card round to the Chicago Rush.

According to ArenaFootball.com the Kats have a 2 wins and no loses in match ups against the Destroyers. But the Destroyers enter the game with new QB Matt Nagy (acquired from the Georgia Force in the off season) ready to run the offense. Nagy will be facing a Nashville defence that has lead the league in sacks the past 2 seasons. For Nashville, QB Clint Stoerner will have to be sharp to keep his offense on the field against a talented Destroyer defensive unit lead by standout DB Jerald Brown.

Although the experts seem to be giving the edge to Nashville I think that the Destroyers with new QB Matt Nagy will pull off the upset - my prediction Columbus 42 over Nashville 35.

World of Warcraft: the card game

2007-02-14T14:26:00.000-07:00

So I have found a new addiction to take up a ridiculous amount of my time.

The World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. I have spent too much time and way too much money on the game so far.

The game play is good, fast paced and with rules in place to limit the type of deck implosion that was common back when I played Magic the Gathering.

You play a hero and fight in battles against another hero. You can recruit allies to assist you and use your heroes abilities and equipment to defeat your foe. I have played quite often casually with friends and have entered a few tournaments.

One type of game that I have net seen in a trading card game before is the raid deck. You can buy a raid deck that represents a dragon and battle the dragon with a party of heroes.

A Brief History of Game

2006-09-25T23:25:00.000-06:00

Wow! What an excellent job of reporting by Shannon Appelcline. He has written four articles on the major players in the rpg industry.

Wizards
Pazio
Chaosium
Issaries

Read them all here.

Another Progress Report

2006-09-04T17:49:00.000-06:00

An update on Intrigue!

I have scrapped both the maps and I am looking into copyright issues for the use of the new bitmap symbols in Campaign Cartographer 3. Because of these questions I will most likely end up scrapping all the work on the maps and start them again from scratch using Campaign Cartographer 2 or using Campaign Cartographer 3 without the bitmap symbols.

I also pulled all the text out of WikidPad and put it into Writely. Writely is Google's new word processor and it seems to work really well. It also allows me to share the document for reviews and collaboration.

The biggest progress has been on the major characters for one of the two towns - I have identified 40 major citizens that will be detailed in the module. I am still trying to determine what format these writeups will be in. So far my total is 1100 of 10000 words(about 11% done).

My self imposed deadline is still Oct 1, 2006 but I am starting to think that I may need to extend my own deadline to Nov 1, 2006.

More Progress

2006-08-04T23:49:00.000-06:00

An update on Intrigue!

I have only written another 200 words for a total of 500 of 10000 words(about 5% done). I haven't done any more work on the maps.

My self imposed deadline is still Oct 1, 2006.

Intrigue! Progress report

2006-07-16T19:31:00.000-06:00

Intrigue is a fantasy adventure module I am writing for the Fudge game system.

I am not much further along than I was two weeks ago. I have approximately 300 of 10000 words completed (about 3% done). I have also started 2 of the 7 maps.

I still hope to have the entire module completed within the next 6 weeks.

Chapter 6

2006-06-29T22:45:00.000-06:00

I am only awake for a moment before I pass out again; as I drop from consciousness I can only think, "Uh-oh, not again".

I peek out from squinted eyes and feel a massive pressure on my eyes as the burning light from the room strikes deep into my mind. A deep throbbing headache and annoying ringing in my ears makes it hard to concentrate.

I just can't recall where I am and how I would have gotten here.

I close my eyes again, trying to concentrate. There is a very unpleasant odor making me gag. I start to breath through my mouth, but that isn't really helping and my arms are stiff and sore. My legs are completely numb.

I peek out again, and as the glare subsides, I realize I am looking at the side of an old steel wash basin.

"What the..." I think to myself.

"Uh..."

Feeling painfully returns to my legs - I find that I am face down on the floor, well almost. My legs are still on a cot behind me. I slowly pull my legs down off the cot and then try to raise my head off the floor.

That wasn't such a smart thing to do just yet!

I must have started out lying on the cot but at some point tried to empty my stomach into basin. I missed. Not only did I miss the basin but neither did I get back to the cot and ended up half on the floor. Must have seemed like a good idea to stay on the floor at the time.

That smell - ew! - I realize that smell is my own vomit.

Well, I will have to get the hell off the floor, but I am kind of sticking where I am. Not that I can actually exert that much effort just yet. A few moments to gather my will and extract my head from the floor and as I slowly regain control of my legs, I pull myself onto my hands an knees.

"Aaargh!" Pain shoots through my right arm as I put weight on it. I pull it back into my chest protectively and maintain my balance using just one arm. I lean over on the cot and close my eyes again. Slowly, painfully, I pull my myself onto the bedding. Nausea and sweat hit me instantaneously and I can feel my brain moving around in my head.

I feel the heave coming and move towards the bucket, I missed the basin yet again! That explains a lot, or at least much of the mess I have been lying in!

After emptying what seems like every meal I have ever eaten I drag myself back onto the cot. Lying on my back I look at the room I am in. There is a single, glaring bulb casting a harsh light onto the room. I turn my head away from the pain of the light.

I am in a small room. The concrete walls once painted white are now showing the effects of many years of neglect. The paint peeling off and the grout seams to be deteriorating. Along both sides are steel framed beds, something like army cots. They're in pretty bad shape but I can see that they were also once white. In the space between the cots is the steel wash basin.

I crawl over to the basin; rust and corrosion have long since have taken the gleam from the bucket; the liquid inside is a scary inky blue and coffee color but it is cold. I wash the puke from my face and hair anyway, it has to go!

Crawling away from the bucket and my puddle of puke I sit against the wall and study the room once more. It's a bare floor, and bare walls, and a lonely vent window is found in one wall, high and long since sealed up and so I won't be able to get a look outside from there.

The single door has been jammed closed with the remains of one of the cots. A frightening amount of blood is on the door and the cot.

I curl into a ball, trying desperately to get my head straight. I take a look at myself. I realize that I have only a denim shirt and white shorts on and only one boot! The shirt is stiff with dried blood, puke, puss and some weird glowing blue stuff. The shorts not so white anymore either.

I take a look at my wounds. Marks on back of hands showing that an IV had been used and ripped out. There is dried blood flaking from my right arm. I stare at my right hand in shock, my little finger is gone! A short stump of the finger is all that remains, it looks like the finger was torn off and the wound burned to cauterize it, it's black, and bruised and terribly painful. From my shoulder to wrist my arm has deep scratches and a cut that is going to need some stitches. My left arm is in much better shape. I remove the surgical tape which was trying to hold my eye open.

I close my eyes again and try to relax.

"Cold. Wet. Miserable. I ain't in Kansas anymore!"

I am having serious difficulty remembering anything other than the last twenty minutes. For some reason this does not strike me as strange. I try to focus on anything I can remember from outside this room. Nothing. All I manage to do is give my self another headache. Then without warning a vivid memory fills my mind as I sit alone on the concrete floor. I remember... running wildly, in a panic to escape... a giant insect-thing which had broken out of a small building thing, after it discovered my stealthy approach!
"How did it know I was there?!"
Getting over the shock of seeing this sort of mantis like thing, I emptied a full clip into it. I think it might have been laughing at me; then it roared - I guess it was a roar, or a scream or some screeching sound - and started right after me! I know I hit the damn thing at least half a dozen times; there's this black stuff oozing out of it, but you sure wouldn't know it from how fast it's coming!

This is too much! Did this really happen or is it the remnants of a drug induced hallucination?

I am not sure how long I remained sitting alone in the room after that. I pulled myself off the floor and promptly trip over a canvas back pack. Inside is half a bottle of wine, a bottle of water, a vintage .45 with no bullets, a handful of breakfast bars and a knife with a broken tip. Alright, now I've got something to start with, so I carefully pack everything back into the bag and head over to the door to pry the cot way from the door.

The noise that accompanies the cot being pried away from the door is a terribly excessive but I need to see what is out there, so I keep going. I push the cot aside and slowly open the door. The hallway beyond is dark but for the red glow of the emergency lighting. The outside of the door is covered with dried blood. Next to the door is a bunch of pale green colored vines with large thorns and broad flat leaves, trailing away down the hallway. The outside of the door has taken quite a beating. Gouges, scratches and dents confirm something was trying to get in - and then there is a strange growling sound coming from the hall.

I open the door more and allow the light from the room to spill into the hall. The bright chrome of a gurney frame is jammed sideways in the hall. Making a barricade nearly five feet high. One side of the hallway has suffered considerable fire damage.

A large forearm and hand are on top of the gurney, but the arm doesn't move. Slowly creeping forward I take a closer look at the hand. It looks like a human hand but it has large claw like nails, all covered with blood and some dark moss like growths. This just keeps getting better!

It takes a few minutes to get up the courage to look over the gurney. On the other side of the gurney is a massive pool of blood and...parts...and a bloody big mangy dog! It looks up at me as I stumble backwards against the door jam. The dog's head is caked with blood. I have a distinct feeling that this might be the source of my missing finger. It doesn't come over the barricade right away so I try to get a closer look. It is all cut up and bloodied and obviously starved and chewing on what must be another body part. I can't make out the breed. It looks like part labrador and part pug, or maybe part chow, or maybe even chi-wawa. Whatever! It's a big dog with a face that is oddly flat. Its nose is small and pushed up. With a bark it thrust forward a growling face towards me and I can see a missing fang. After a half hearted attempt to get over the gurney it falls back and starts lapping at the drying blood at the bottom of the gurney. I can see form here that the arm ends in a bloody stump.

This dog is between me and what might be the way out. I shake the gurney trying to move the dog off and it kind of growls in fear and backs slowly away, dragging the arm with it through the mess on the floor.

I sit down on my side of the gurney and dig out a breakfast bar from the pack, tear it in half and throw one over to the dog. Maybe we can be friends, or at least this would be better than chewing on me! After finishing the bar and some water I take another peek over the gurney. The dog is no where in sight.

I push down the gurney which hits the ground with a loud crash. Too loud maybe.

I scale over and limp down the hallway looking for the rest of my clothes and anyone who might be able to tell me just what is going on. It is only a few feet to the end of the hall. I take a look around the corner and the dog is still nowhere to be seen. A few feet away is a set of metal stairs and another door. I walk over to the door and walk into some sort of garage bay. Must be a hospital judging from the three ambulances and the cop car parked in neat rows and thickly covered in a sooty dust. I slowly cross the garage floor and set into the hospital building itself.

Chapter 5

2006-06-21T18:05:00.000-06:00

I open my eyes but all I can see is a painfully bright light burning down onto my face. Trying to blinking away the searing afterimage I find my entire body aches from top to bottom. Trying to sit up is beyond any control I have over my muscles. After several tries I come to the conclusion that I can't get control over my body. After several painful minutes I manage to flop over onto my stomach. This reduces the pain from the light above me. I peek out through squinted eyes and it appears that I am lying face down in a stairwell.

Closing my eyes I take a few deep breaths to try to regain control of my body. Lying there, the cold floor seems to reduce the ache from my arms. I slowly tense my left arm and push myself up off the floor. It only takes a couple of minutes to push off the stairs and get into an uncomfortable seated position. Shaking my head to clear the cobwebs I find I have to close my eyes to force out the bright overhead light.

If I close my eyes it shuts out the light but the throbbing pain in my temples and running down my neck doesn't go away. I mentally brace myself, take a few deep breaths and open my eyes. I am sitting on a step about five up from a landing. A bright orange six is on the door of the landing. Turning to look up the stairs I see a body.

After an instant of shock I reach for my sidearm. I feel a bit better with the soft wooden grip of my gun in my hand. I stare at the body on the landing above me. The gun in my hand is not my service sidearm but my own pistol. A bead of sweat rolls down my cheek as I watch the body on the floor. There is an odor in the stairwell, a mixture of stale air, sweat, and urine. It is a scent that some of my buddies called the scent of fear.

There seems to be something wrong with the body - but I can't tell what it is. The bright light is still affecting my vision. I carefully shift to have a better view of the landing above.

I have a gut feeling that I am about to be in a very dangerous situation. I would feel better about things if I could remember how I got here. I start thinking about what I should do next. I keep trying to identify what is bothering me about the body because something doesn't feel right.

I take a deep breath and consider what to do next when the body moves. I take a quick step away from the body but end up falling down the stairs. I try to catch my balance but I can't manage to gain my footing. I try to bring my gun up but a burning pain in my shoulder restricts me to a feeble gesture at best. I open my eyes but I can't focus my vision and all I see is darkness. I fight to remain awake but succumb to the cool darkness that envelops me.

I awake with a start.

The cold concrete floor has numbed my face. There is a strong odor all around me and a lot of dried blood on the floor. I push myself up onto my hands and knees and realize I have my gun drawn. I roll over and lean up against the wall. I can see an arm hanging down from the landing above me. That would explain the odor. I check my gun. Only two shots left. I check it again... still only two shots. I am sitting right next to an exit door.

The stairwell is still fairly dark and only the emergency lights are on. I take a couple of deep breaths and pull myself up off the floor. A flash of pain shoots through my arms and legs as I get to my feet. I grit my teeth and force myself to move.

I take a quick overview of my body and find that I have more bumps and bruises than I care to count. I must have taken a pretty nasty spill down the stairs. A deep cut just under my left eye has left dried blood on my cheek. All my muscles hurt as well. Sleeping on concrete is not all that restful.

I catch myself taking mental stock of my situation, listing my injuries, the current time as well as the location of the items around me. I am on the sixth floor based on the giant six painted on the door next to me. On my mental check list I start giving all the items around me threat levels. I am a little shocked at the activity but it seems to be a natural reaction for me so I go with it.

The emergency lights add a dull hum to the otherwise quiet stairwell. I put my gun away and realize I have added "limited ammunition" to my mental check list.

Sweat rolls down my back as I pace back and forth across the small landing. My heart and my mind both seem to be in a race to see which can go faster. I stop pacing and try to regulate my breathing. My pulse jumps again as I realize I have started a second mental list. It frightens me to note that the second list is all the signs of shock I can identify in my own behavior. I get angry as I realize I have started pacing and have drawn my gun again.

I put my gun back and force myself to stand still for a slow count of twenty. I sit down and take a look down the mental lists I have been compiling on my current situation. The equipment list is pretty short; a gun with limited ammunition and that seems to be it. But that doesn't set my heart racing, it?s odd but I seem to be quite comfortable with that. The body above me on the landing doesn't seem to be the source of my near panic either. Even though I am pretty sure that I killed that person. My training seems to have kicked in and taken over. What training?!?

The sweat starts to drip off my nose as it hits me. I have no memory of what has happened, why it happened, when it happened. It is a stark and sudden thought that causes the cold sweat to stop - I have no memory of who I am! I stop pacing and I sink to my knees with the stark fear that I have no idea where or who I am or why I am holding a gun in an industrial stairwell.

I start doing some breathing exercises. I stop pacing and sit down again. I rest my head against the door and I put my gun away again. I start looking though my pockets. I don't have my service side arm. My service side arm?

Flashes of a graduation ceremony appear to me as though through a fog. My parents and brother are in the crowd along with Sgt. McKinley. He?d been retired for twelve years before I joined the academy but was my inspiration for joining the force. I proudly showed him my service revolver and badge the day I graduated.

I search my memory. Hungry for more, hungry to remember more of myself. But there is no more. Just a ceremony and then me in this stairwell. It must have been nearly four years ago but I have no memory of anything that happened in that time.

I pull out my wallet; there are only five items in it: My badge, Buffalo New York Police Department number 2003786, Patrolman James Sharp. My drivers license; James L. Sharp of 5 Red Jacket Parkway, Buffalo, New York. Looks like I am 23 years old. There is also a visa card for Jim Sharp and a smart card with a blue square and the letters JTL embossed in black. The only other item in the wallet is fifty seven dollars in cash. I put the items back in my wallet. The wallet itself is a plain black leather wallet with an embossed B with a sword sticking through it. The symbol tickles my memory but I can't place it. I also have a key chain with a dodge key and what must be a house key on it.

I look over my clothes. My jeans are in okay shape but are a little dirty. I pull off my jean jacket and hoodie and under all that I am wearing a white and black Buffalo Sabres tee shirt with a large blood stain on the left shoulder and arm. I don't have any injuries so it must be someone else?s' blood. The jean jacket and hoodie are both in great shape but have the same blood stain on the left shoulder. I put the hoodie and jacket back on.

The lights above me crackle for a few moments and slowly light up as the emergency lights flicker and go off. I am about to open the door and head out of the stairwell through the doorway when I hear something in the stairwell below.

It sounds like someone is moving around down there. I wait, straining to hear but the faint sounds are drowned out by the high pitched buzz of the fluorescent lights coming to life. I draw my revolver and start moving slowly. I would like to move faster but the combination of wanting to make a cautious approach and the shooting pain that stabs into my back with every step. At the next landing my right knee starts to stiffen up slowing me down even more. That fall I took down the stairs sure didn?t help improve my mobility.

Gripping my pistol I pass the green five painted on the landing and continue down the stairs.

Writers Un-block

2006-06-19T21:58:00.000-06:00

I have come to the conclusion that writers block is not the worst problem I face writing. I am actually having exactly the opposite problem right now. I have started a writing project and I am stalled after only a couple thousand words.

The problem is not writers block. The problem is that I have so many ideas that I can't settle down to write on any topic. When I have writers block I can work through it by sitting down and writing. Writing about anything. Just write.

With un-block I find myself putting off writing because I can get back to it in a while. I justify this to myself because I have so many ideas it is not like I will have problems putting things onto paper once I can pick just one topic.

So I am going to try posting a progress and design notes here to try to get myself motivated. It works for NaNoWriMo, so maybe it can get my momentum going.

Another chapter posted...

2006-05-01T14:40:00.000-06:00

Another installment of the story writing game.

here is how it works. I wrote an openning scene and then sent it out to some people. They responded and I worked with them to produce a chapter of the story. As time moves forward they will meet and interact with other people and maybe with eachother.

So far it has been tremendously fun to do.

the Chapters published so far:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4

Chapter 04

2006-05-01T14:39:00.000-06:00

I open my eyes and try to clear my mind. I have a killer headache and the taste of blood in my mouth. Above me is a bright glowing bar or light.

The light seems too bright to be contained. I swear the light grows as I watch it expanding to fill my vision.

I feel light headed as the light coats my body. All at once the light disappears and the world goes dark. I get the feeling this has happened to me before.

I open my eyes again and try to judge how much time has passed since I was last awake. I feel the cold hard floor under my cheek and turn my head to look up at the ceiling. The room I am in seems to be one massive blur of painful bright lights. There is something large and green covering my lower body but I can not seem to clear my vision to identify what it is.

I shake my head to try to regain my bearings. Shaking my head causes a remarkable amount of pain. As the blur clears and the pounding in my head slows to a dull roar I feel tightness across my chest and back.

I try to stretch but feel a band tightening painfully across my back. I feel restricted and that's when I realize that my arms are crossed in front of me and secured somehow along my back.

"What the Hell?" I mumble aloud. My voice sounds strange. I probe with my tongue and feel a set of stitches on my gums and a very swollen upper lip.

Gritting my teeth blood starts to leak into my mouth again. I struggle to get a clear thought. My mind feels like I have just downed thirteen shooters and slurping a quart of malt liquor through a straw.

I make another try to get my arms free but they remain crossed in front of my body and pulled tightly behind me. I try to sit up with limited success. When I try to get up off the floor I feel the straight jacket straps. I manage to get into a seated position but doing so causes the tugging of the cheap blue hospital bottoms into some remarkably uncomfortable areas.

I cross one leg in front of me but the other is tangled in the large green sheet that is still partially covering the stretcher. On the leg in front of me is a small plastic band around the ankle. "Jarrod" is printed on the band in big block letters. Is that me? I think to myself as I try to roll the band to see what else might be printed on my bracelet. As I struggle to read the bracelet a memory from long ago fills my mind.

"Ok Jarrod it is then" I mumble to myself.

I guess if I am a guest I might as well meet the innkeepers. "Hey nurse! A little friggen help here!" I hoarsely yell which renews the pain in my head. I make a mental note; no loud talking for a while. I wonder how many times I've made that note.

After a few minutes I conclude that no nurse, orderly or anyone else is coming. I guess they are all busy at the crazy zoo.

As I try to get up I notice stuff on a shelf under the stretcher. My Kodiak boots, jeans and plaid shirt are neatly folded on the shelf. There is something dark and smelly on my clothes. The contrast between the shiny chrome of the shelf and the dark black stain on my clothes is surprising.

As I lean in to take a closer look I recognize the dark stain on my clothes. "Ah shit," I say to myself,? my stuff is all covered in blood, again.

I use my chin and teeth to pull my clothes off the shelf. I hope I can get to my wallet. Hopefully I can use the edge of my debit card to cut through the straps trapping my arms. The smell of my clothes is quite strong. I loudly gag a few times as a work towards my wallet. I hope I can get my wallet out and wear through these straps before anyone notices.

I fall forward painfully to get to my pants pocket.

"Damn!" I yell aloud. No wallet. Oh well, lets get creative.

I have to use my whole body to get back upright. I use my shoulders and head in place of arms as I wiggle to the wall. Trying to stand is a new adventure. I push my socks off with my feet so I don't slide. I leave a trickle of blood on the wall as blood leaks out of the corners of my mouth.

I lean against the wall panting. The silence is striking. I can hear my own breathing and my heart pounding. The buzz of the fluorescent lights is loud in the unusual silence. As my breathing returns to normal a clap of thunder in the distance startles me.

Taking a final relaxing breath I take a look around. Other than me and my stretcher the hallway has 7 doors. This hallway looks familiar. In the center of each door is a glass bubble allowing a full view of the room beyond. A memory of being on the inside of one of these rooms blossoms in my mind. I wonder what I did this time. Another memory fills my mind. I am in some sort of protest, fighting to save the animals. More memories flood into my mind.

I remember standing before a judge for assaulting a medical lab security guard; breaking into labs and freeing the animals. I don't have any memory of why I would have been sent back here. Maybe I just went on a bender, and all hell broke loose, sure feels that way.

At one end of the hallway there is an exit sign. You can't miss the painted on bright orange 3 with the word Stairs on the door at the end of the hall. I must be on the third floor and that door will be alarmed if I am in the sort of place I think I am. I turn around and stumble away from the exit along the wall of the hallway. I reach a corner and listen. I hear the rather loud pounding in my head and the regular air circulation sounds but not much else.

I peek around the corner.

Twenty yards further is a small waiting room.

Someone is seated in one of the chairs. He is seated with his back toward me so I can not be sure he is asleep but his head is tipped all the way back. So he is either asleep or staring at the ceiling.

I try to quietly approach the chair. Shit. Shit. Shit he is so dead. This was the orderly who was watching the main entrance to ensure none of us went for a walk. Well someone wanted out in a hurry, or maybe wanted in to get someone.

There is a massive hole in his chest. Someone really did a job on him. His hands and face are also deeply scratched.

I am so screwed.

Blood and entrails lead away from the orderly to the desk. The desk has a partial glass partition. A dark stain covers part of the glass partition. The stain creates a clear reflection in the glass. That stain does not look good, good thing I don't work as a cleaner here.

Part of the partition is shattered. A bloody hoof print is on the desk near were the partition is broken. I stare at the hoof print. It is quite clearly a hoof print. About 4 inches long the cloven print is really out of place in a hospital.

Near the print is a piece of broken glass jammed into in the wall. I push against the piece of glass with my jacket hoping like hell it doesn't come free before I cut the strap. I feel a stab of pain and a new trickle of blood as I push too hard and the glass slices into my side.

I take a sharp breath and start to work more carefully at the strap. I hear a loud guttural wail from one of the rooms down the hallway.

I take a look around. I can see my reflection in a section of the glass partition. I look like quite the tool; I have a nasty cut on my mouth but it doesn't look too bad. I should be fine in a couple of weeks. I am a little shocked to see the bright orange hair. The seven inch spikes are a little limp.

I suddenly remember when I used to wear a lab coat over my suits and my employer liked the buzz cut I wore to the research lab.

Another wail draws my attention back from the past. After what could be a minute or two could be ten who knows one of the straps cuts through. Things get loose in my nether regions. I manage to slide the jacket over my head and stretch my arms.

So I take another look at myself. It doesn't look like I have any other wounds. I am still wearing a faded World Wildlife Federation t-shirt. I carefully search the orderly for keys, money, pass cards, ID badge license registration any thing to help me get out of here. I find a blood coated badge. Cameron Fleming. Sorry Cam, but I need this more than you do. Cam also donates twenty Canadian dollars and a Visa. Canadian dollars! What am I doing in Canada? I grab the guys' shoes they are a little big and they squish uncomfortably, but they seem good enough once tied.

Time to blend in again.

I hop over the partition into the nurses' station. I hope they have some Tylenol. I don't know what hit this place but I hope it's gone. Once in the nurses' station I see some keys. I clip them onto the waistband of my pants. There is a doctor's coat on the back of a chair.

I throw the jacket over my shoulders, a bit big for my frame but it will do. I put my hands in the pockets. There is a whistle in one and a stethoscope in the other.

"Okay Jarrod. Time to get creative and get the hell out of this alive." I say to myself, then realising I shouldn't be talking to myself I smile and add, "next time I am running to a tropical island."

I push the release on the security door but nothing happens. I try it a couple of times with the same results. I pick up the chair and after a couple of attempts the door opens. I discard the remains of the chair and head into the hallway beyond the door.

Why I am running a d20 fantasy game

2006-04-27T00:27:00.000-06:00

I am about to start a new campaign as a GM. I stepped away from the GMs chair over a year ago because I did not have the time to run a game. Since then we have had two GMs. The first was a first time GM that we tortured into submission the second a veteran that put together a great campaign. Unfortunately, this game has ground to a halt due to real life schedule conflicts. Each time we plan to play something comes up that keeps to many people away from the game. The end result has been no games for four months. In that time we have played board and card games like poker, BANG!, Killer Bunnies, and The Werewolves of Millers Creek.

Although I have enjoyed playing these games a great deal I have realized that I want to roleplay. I have a marginally simpler life now than when I stepped out from behind the screen so I am going to take another shot at running a game.

The first struggle was genre. We almost always play Fantasy. We have played a few short games of Superhero or Future based games but all the long running campaigns have been fantasy. I would love to try a SteamPunk, CyberPunk, Future, or Supers genre. However, I have a limited amount of time to prep for each session so going with something familiar is far easier than trying something daring. So I flirted with a modern or near future campaign but settled on fantasy for the genre. (I did start a story telling "game" in a near future or dark future world to try out the modern genre. The chapters of that game will be published here as well.)

Then I struggled a great deal trying to pick which game system to play. To be honest the real struggle was trying to find a game other than d20 to play. I try not to be biased about game systems but when it came down to selecting a system I found myself looking for any system I could play rather than d20. I sometimes find the game material for d20 to restrictive, or too combat based. So after several days of research I finally made a decision. I will start a d20 campaign and here is why...

I looked at Fudge. I really like the Fudge system, or at least I claim to, but I have yet to run a long term campaign in Fudge. I seriously considered Fudge because regardless of genre or setting I can use Fudge. I could actually mix and match genres and setting in one game with the Fudge system. In the end there just isn't enough stuff there for me to run a campaign easily. I love the Fudge but it is a lot of work for the GM. There are very very few off the shelf modules to use and there is no campaign books for the games I would like to play. I have played a few sessions of Fudge and I liked the system (or I should say I like the mechanic) but I don't want to get into the level of GM preparation overhead that Fudge requires. So Fudge was eliminated form the list of possible games.

I considered Rolemaster but only for a moment. If Fudge requires too much GM investment then Rolemaster is off the scale. I have been a Rolemaster fan for a long time but I just can't get excited about that level of detail anymore.

I also took a long hard look at Harp. About a year ago I tried to start a Harp campaign but the preparation work for the game just sapped all my creative juices. Not that Harp is a difficult game but when I was starting up only the base book was released so I would have to come up with the settings and adventures all on my own. I looked at Harp again and I really like some of the concepts introduced in Harp (Blood talents are a fantastic idea for example) but I don't want to have to buy a bunch of new books for the game and I don't want to invest the time to create my own stuff for Harp so Harp was also dropped from my consideration.

World of Warcraft the RPG was considered for about thirty minutes. I love Warcraft 3. The world is interesting but I don't know the system, the world, the way things work, etc. The game books also cost the earth so WoW was only a flash in the pan on my list of games to consider.

I took a look through my RPGNow pdfs and picked out Rune Stryders. Rune Stryders is a fantasy game that includes mecha - but fantasy based mecha. Giant organic constructs. I read through parts of the rules again and thought about using Rune Stryders for my upcoming game. I really like the concept but I rejected Rune Stryders for the same reasons I dropped fudge and Rolemaster and Harp. No support products.

So that left me with d20.

I looked again at my RPGNow pdfs and found a ton of things to just pick up and play. In less than an hour I have a campaign planned that would span first to thirdteenth level. And the whole thing would use just three products that had cost me a total of $18.87 USD.

The last thing I considered was d20 modern. I looked really really closely at d20 modern simply because I love the way money and damage works in d20 modern. I was very close to trying to take the damage rule from d20 modern and put them into my new campaign. So finally d20 modern was the last thing that dropped from my list and I had a final list that looked like this:

d20 Modern - not the right setting/genre
Fantasy Fudge - too much prep work
Future Fudge - too much prep work and not the right setting/genre
Harp - need to buy the books or too much prep work
Rolemaster - too detailed
RuneStryders - too much prep work
World of Warcraft - far too expensive and too much prep work
d20 Fantasy (D&D)

So I am going to run a d20 game, even though I am at times extremely dissatisfied with the game system. My hope is to produce a game that is a great deal for all the players (including me) and I think that after going through all the steps and reviews and reading I have selected the right game system.

So I went though this process because I did NOT want to play d20 and came to the conclusion that I actually do want to play d20. The system is not bad and the support products make it extremely easy to set up and play.

Note: Simply because life has a way of doing things to you ("Busy, busy, busy" in the words of Billy Pilgrim) I immediately cancelled the first game session because I was going out of town for the weekend.

New Game, New Story

2006-04-15T11:49:00.000-06:00

A new story writing game...

As requested I will maintain a "top post" with the chapters in the correct order.

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3

Chapter 03

2006-04-14T20:44:00.000-06:00

I open my eyes and nearly scream from the pain that assaults my eyes. The light burns into my mind. I can't seem to clear my head or get back to my feet. I close my eyes to escape the light and the pain and I return to my coma like sleep. As I lose consciousness I feel more than hear that there is someone else in the room.

My eyes open but sting with the sudden brightness of light. I close them again and my other senses kick into overdrive. At first I perceive the strong smell of disinfectant so I must be in a place that requires a high level of hygiene.

I move my hands and realize I am under some blankets. They are thin and stiff like a newly pressed shirt. I am a bit surprised how rough the sheets feel. I can almost feel the weave of the sheets as I run my hand along the seam of the sheet covering me. I press my fingers down and feel the soft give of a bed and hear the crinkling of plastic. The sound reminds me of nights long ago when I would tuck my niece into bed. The sudden thought of her brings a smile to my face and I feel a gentle calm. I wonder if she ever needed that bed sheet as I cannot remember a time when she had an accident in bed. She had, in my mind, always been a very smart girl but then again she was my only niece and I had only nephews to compare her too.

I used to visit her and my sister a lot before I joined the firm. I wonder how long it has been since I have seen Them. I wonder why memories of them are more real than where I am right now.

My niece would bug me because she never knew anyone who had two earrings before and would constantly ask me if it hurt when I got my ears pierced. That would always lead into the stories of how I got them.

The first one was from my sister. She thought it would be cool if she gave her little brother this as a present for Christmas. Mom had always said that I could not get one till I was eighteen but my sister worked her over and I was allowed to get it pierced the Christmas year I turned sixteen.

The second was my niece's favorite. I was seventeen and I was having a good time with my friends. It was Friday and we had just won a soccer game that no one expected us to win. We dug deep and we pulled off a major upset. I would like to say that I had scored the winning goal or that I was the goal keeper that had stopped all the shots fired at me, but that was not the case. I played defense but I was first defensive substitute. Don’t get me wrong that position is still important - if someone from the main line grew tired or the coach wanted to rest them up for a special play - then I was sent in. So anyway, we were all living it up and I got a little drunk and passed out. My friends decided to take advantage of this situation. When I sobered up there it was a brand new hole with my school pin in it. At first I was angry, but now it reminds me of all my friends and how we would do anything for each other.

My niece lived outside the city in a place we called the big woods. It has an actual name, but she and the rest of the family just called it the big woods. When I was out there I would run and play with her and that was always such a treat. We would play one of fifty versions of tag. There was freeze tag, hamburger tag and frog tag. Each of them a bit different then the one we played before. Most of them were based on an animal and that you had to act like that while playing the basic game of tag.

I always got a lot of exercise while visiting the big woods a lot more then when I was in the city. Don’t get me wrong I am reasonably fit as I walk to work every day. This is because like most people I could not afford parking in the city... well that was before I joined the firm.

Thinking of the firm strikes me with sudden fear. Do they know where I am? Will they be sending someone to help me? I block those thoughts and return to pleasant memories of my niece.

Tim...

That is the name my niece used to call me. Well at least now I think I know who I am. I try to open my eyes again, this time only slightly. I squint hoping to see something, but all I see is light. I know this will take time so I wait for my eyes to adjust. I look around. I must have opened my eyes looking toward a window since my eyes are now starting to see more clearly.

I now try to open them fully. The bright lights are gone but the dull pain remains. I can manage the pain and look around the room. I notice I am in a bed. There is a sink near by and a table. The table seems to have a lot of bottles of different sizes on it. There also seams to be gauze on it.

My calm turns into fear as I realize I am in some sort of hospital. How did I get here...? Why am I here...? What happened to me...? Who am I?

I roll off the bed and look at myself. I am dressed in a light blue hospital gown and hospital slippers. I look at the bottles and can't make sense of what they might be used for. The largest is labeled "Refined Equine Latrodectus Serum Globulins". It is the type of bottle doctors use to fill needles. There are a few smaller bottles. One is labeled “Halothane” and another seems to be a pain killer. There are a few that are empty with nothing in them. I look over my body. My right shoulder is sore as if I had recently received a number of shots into it. I lift up the sleeve of the gown and I see a blood soaked bandage. No wonder it hurts so much. I try to peal back the tape on one side to take a look at what is underneath. The tape pulls back at my skin. This is gonna hurt. I contemplate just ripping it off and then notice that the blood and the bandage are working as a clot for the wound. I will have to look at this later when I can soak it off.

Continuing my self examination I find that I have a tight gauze bandage on my left calf. Deep marks along my calf indicate that I had a splint on the leg until quite recently. I also notice a tattoo. I have a tattoo? I scan my memory to recollect when I would have gotten it, but my memory comes back blank. I look at the tattoo more closely. It is a tiny brown cross with some sort of branch wrapped around it. Above the cross are three symbols that I do not recognize and below are three letters. B.R.G. I touch the tattoo and feel a bit of discomfort. It must be new. I feel a bit more scared.

I walk over to the sink and wash my face and neck with cold water. I glance in the mirror. My hair is a bit messed up. It is not an odd look as it often looks this way when I first wake up. I gently run my fingers through it and it falls into place. That is the nice thing about having short hair. I have my two earrings in and I gently think ‘Go tigers Go’. I am a bit thirsty so I look around for a glass to fill with water. There is no cup near so I fill my hands and drink a few gulps of water from my cupped palms. At first I fell a bit of pain as I drink. It might be because I have not had a drink in a while, but it more feels like something else. That’s it. It feels like the time I was at a rock concert for SugaBabes. I had yelled so much that the next day I could not speak and my throat was sore. I try to speak to test my theory.

“Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers..”

The words come out very softly and I have to clear my throat on every second word. That must be it, I must have been yelling and that is why my throat is sore. I drink a bit more.

I step over to the window and look out. The natural light actually makes my eyes feel better. I am quite high in a building, maybe as high as six stories up. It looks like mid morning from the light. I can't see any signs that would identify the hospital I am in but across the street is a huge Daimler Chrysler building. It looks like a factory.

I almost fall over when I see the street between the factory and the hospital. There are cars everywhere. Some are parked on the sidewalks and meridians, others are smashed into each other or into trees and poles. None are moving. Some of the cars have blood on the windshields where the occupants slammed into the windows on impact.

I retreat from the window back into the room. I open the locker in the corner and find clothes. There is my Treo. At last something I know is mine. I check to see if it is on but the batteries seem to be dead. I will have to charge that as soon as I get a chance. Also in a small sealed bag there appears to be a key card. It looks like a security card. I flip it over and realize both sides are blank. I put it back on the shelf and put on the clothes but they seem to be a size too big.

I see some glasses and try them on. The room goes blurry. They must not be mine. I fold the glasses and put them into my pocket along with the security card that I had placed on the shelf.

I look into the hallway and see someone else. They are hunched over in the hallway next to a pile of furniture. The furniture seems to be a crude barricade. Looking the other direction the hallway seems do be a dead end. There are three other doors down the hallway. The person seems to be hurt, they are not moving and a pool of blood is on the floor around where they are seated.

I walk toward the other person when a loud bang sounds from inside the building.

Chapter 02

2006-04-11T13:14:00.000-06:00

I open my eyes and see bright lights. They burn into my mind and cause a great deal of pain. I am not sure where I am. I try to sit up but I can't get up. I sink back down into the darkness of oblivion.

I am awake again.

I briefly open my eyes but the pain is still there. Without opening my eyes I examine my surroundings. The light overhead makes a small droning sound but beyond that I only hear my own steady breathing. I reach out my hands and find that I am in a very small room. I can almost reach both of the walls from where I lay on the floor. I open my eyes again and take a quick look around. This is a an odd room indeed. I can not figure out what kind of room I am in, the doors to the room are quite a distance to either side.

I take a look at myself. It looks like I am in pretty good shape for someone who can not remember his name, life, or how he got to be naked in a strange room. I notice a smell which is kind of arousing.

Next to me on the floor there is a uniform neatly folded in a plastic bag.

The rest of the room is empty.

So why is a naked man left in a odd room with a freshly cleaned uniform?

There is a strong smell of cleaner, and the floor is very clean. Next to me on the floor is a uniform. It appears to be the uniform of an fireman. I take a look at the uniform. There is a lot of medals on the uniform, it looks like military issue.

A memory strikes me. This is my uniform, but I haven't been in this uniform since I left Fort Wayne, but that was a long time ago.

I tear the plastic off the uniform. It appears to be in good shape. While I put on the uniform I notice that I have a recent head wound. It is not bleeding but it is very fresh. I don't seem to have any other cuts.

Bending over to pull on the uniform pants I notice a massive bruise on the left side of my back. What would have caused that? I stretch to check my range of movement. It doesn't seem to be limiting my movement but it does cause a twinge if I have to bend or reach. I button up the uniform and read read the name off the name tag. Boatman. This is my uniform so my name must be Boatman.

I take a long look around the room. This almost looks like a hallway. The far door has a bloody hand print running the length of the door. Is is the only thing that is not white on any of the walls.

I walk over to the door with the bloody smear on it. I look at my hands. I didn't make the marks, or if I did I cleaned my hands really well afterwards. The blood is still sightly wet so it must have happened only a short time ago. There is something about the hand print that strikes me as out of place but I can not place what it might be.

Other than the hand print the door has a few scratches along the edges. Like someone was trying to grasp the side of the door but was not able to manage to grip it. Who ever made those scratches was desperate to get out of this room.

I take another look at my hands. No way I made the scratches either.

I check the door, it is locked from this side. I try the knob. As I turn it the lock clicks open. I lock the door again and rethink my situation.

I am in a long strange room, with one of my old military uniforms. Someone was recently in the room and tried to force their way past a door they could have easily unlocked. Someone else left a long bloody smear on the same door.

I walk to the other door. It is closed but not locked. There is no marks on this door and no blood either. I look back at the other door. It is like someone was marking their territory with that bloody print.

I sit back down on the floor and consider my options. The pain behind my eyes is getting better but it is still painful to look at anything too bright. There is nothing else I can think of to do so I decide to find out where I am.

The pounding in my temples is starting to subside but the pain and pressure is still pretty intense. The lights are no longer painfully bright. So I have confidence that I will recover in due time. All my training comes in handy though. I can hear my internal clock counting out the minutes to me. Don't stay in one place. Do not rest in an uncertain location. I know I will not start feeling better until I have discovered where I am and why I am here.

I open the unlocked door and I find myself in a large room. Based on the color scheme and construction I can now say for certain I am in a hospital. I am immediately struck by the smell. It is a cross between sweat and musk. Maybe someone is marking their territory. Across from the door is a huge mirror. The mirror is at least four meters across and almost two meters high. In the center of the room is a large bed. It is an adjustable bed similar to a regular hospital bed but with straps and attachments that look like they would hold someone to the bed in various positions. The bed sheets are sweat soaked and a considerable blood stain covers the upper portion of the bed.

Walking across the room to the bed the door closes with a loud and audible click. My footsteps are loud and dull on the polished floor. The room has a clean and military feel to it. How long has it been since I was in a military institution.

Next to the bed is a long and narrow tray table. Two dozen tools a lined up on the table. Some I recognize but there are others that are a complete mystery. Looking over the tools arrayed on the table I start to get a tight uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach. It looks like the last person in the bed grasped for something on the table and covered the parts of the table and some of the tools with blood and gore. There is some blood spray on the floor ceiling and wall that clearly originated from the bed.

The bed and the table evoke vague memories from my past. I can not identify the source of these memories through the fog in my mind. I have a stark fear that I have been in a room like this before. I have a sudden and urgent need to leave this room. Looking back at the bed my memory flickers to life but I still can't identify the event. All that I can do is shake my head and tell myself it can't be true but what might have happened in my past.

I can't see anything else in the room of any significance. I am more than a little uncomfortable staying in the room.

My own dull footsteps beat a cadence to exit. On the back of the door there is a symbol drawn in blood. It looks like a bio-hazard symbol. Why would anyone draw a bio-hazard symbol in blood? I drop to one knee to examine the marks. The strokes are deliberate and it is quite clear someone is trying to send a message.

I open the door and step back into the hallway. It is past time for me to leave.

I walk back down the hallway and move through the other door. I have a distinct feeling I have walked this hallway before.

On the other side of the door is a much smaller room. Across from the door is a small seating area. In the seating area is a door marked washroom. The seating area is immaculately clean. The seating area has a couple of vending machines. The machine has M&Ms, my favorite. I step up to the machine wishing I had some change. The deja vu feeling gets even stronger. The glass is cracked exactly where I remember it... I have been here before.

To the right of the waiting area is a large metal strapped door. To the left is a hallway that must lead to the elevator.

I figure it is time to get as far form here as possible. Headache or not I jog down the hallway to the elevators. Next to the elevator is a large orange thirteen. Thirteenth floor. Next to the elevator is another bloody hand print. There is no call button to get the elevator though. Looking overtop the elevator doors at the lights indicating the floor the elevator is on.

As if on cue the elevator starts to rise. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Each light is accompanied by a clear and loud bell. I look at the lights and my jaw drops. There is no thirteen. The lights stop at twelve. I head back to the seating area as the elevator hits the tenth floor.

I hear the elevator doors opening as the washroom door closes behind me.

Chapter 01

2006-04-03T15:09:00.000-06:00

I open my eyes and try to focus but all I see is are bright lights and blurry images. I seem to be lying on a cold floor, which causes me more than a bit of concern because I can't seem to remember how I got here. Actually I can't remember where I am.

I lay back down and close my eyes again. Focusing on what I am doing and where I am... a sudden frightening thought hits me. I can't remember who I am. A cold sweat covers my body as I struggle to remember who I am and how I came to find yourself... where?

I try to raise my head again and a stabbing pain behind my eyes forces me back to the ground. I try again to raise my head but the pain explodes once more and I fall back to the floor. I fight to remain conscious but I slide into darkness once more.

As my head starts to clear I open my eyes a second time. I see my surroundings much clearer.

I am naked in a private room somewhere in the a hospital emergency room. There is gauze on my right hand. I feel under the gauze and discover a cut that feels and looks a lot like it was made with the broken base of a forty pounder of Vodka.

Every pore of my body wants to go back to sleep, but what the hell is this crap in my mouth. The light is stabbing my brain with such vehemence that I think my name is Blue, but I am not sure.

I get to my feet and look around. I use the bed for support and see my clothes on the floor and in a garbage container. I paw through the clothes looking for a hint of where I was and where I could be. The black silk t-shirt with the silver 'fsck me' across the front is ruined. There is too much blood on it for my comfort. I drag the brown leather pants out of the trash and a black case falls to the floor with a clatter.

My blackberry! I can't live without that!! I pick up the case and attempt to wipe off the sticky mess that coats it. Luckily, my blackberry case is shockproof, waterproof and securely closed, unless I unlock it with my thumb print, so it appears fine. I set the case on the bed and sit down and see if I can find anything else of value.

I dump out the trash and dig through looking for my wallet. The bastards! My wallet is gone. The pants are coated with the same sticky mess as the blackberry case, and the shirt is coated with blood. No help there.

I push the clothes back into a pile near the trash. Grab a gown from the shelf and pull it over my shoulders. It doesn't quite cover as much as I would like. They obviously don't design these gowns for someone six feet three but I can't be running around naked. I shuffle toward the door and see my socks and boots neatly stacked on a chair. I grab them and go into the bathroom.

Looking in the mirror a single name pops into my memory. Knash! I thumb open my blackberry and dial my best friend, Knash. As the phone rings, I laugh out loud, painfully, when I see a 'No Cell Phone allowed' sign reflected in the mirror. I hope Knash is still alive this morning, if it is morning.

Knash's message service picks up. I'm not surprised that the voice on the message play back is my own. I am telling myself that if or when I call the girls names are Monique and Sara and we went to club called 'the Aphrodisiac'. What the hell would I be doing in a club called the Aphrodisiac? A new memory hits me. I remember deciding to goto the club. It has a reputation of being one of the hottest clubs in Cleveland.

I hit a button to rewind the message playback. It is fairly normal for Knash or myself to call ourselves and leave details of what we will not remember in the aftermath of the night before.

I am pissed at myself for not being able to remember the girls. Wait! I think I can recall one of the girls...

A loud grunt form the hall interrupts my memory. I pause the playback and stumble out of the bathroom. On the way out I catch a good look at my reflection. I have some kind of black charcoal all over my face, mouth, and the front side of my chest and stomach.

I poke my head into the hallway. There is a sign on the opposite wall that reads 'Emergency Room'. There is bloody foot prints on the floor and a smeared red hand print on the wall.

The grunting noise seems to be coming from down the hallway.

The noise will wait.

I pull myself back into the room and sit down in a chair. I thumb the playback back on and listen. My own voice describes for me Sara. I think I can remember her - a goddess, blond and tiny, just the kind of girl I like. Ah Yes. Man, I hope Sara explains why I woke up naked, rather than the huge cut on my hand

I pull the gown back off my shoulders and move back into the the bathroom. In the mirror, I examine my 'blackened' reflection. I would think I would remember a fire big enough to coat me with this much ash. The soap in the sink is not doing anything more than create new black smear across my chest. I need to clean myself up. I walk back into the room and see an open box labeled 'Medicinal Charcoal?. That is the source of this black crap. That is when it hits me! I wasn't burnt I was poisoned! Alcohol poisoning! Well that much alcohol and getting my stomach pumped would explain a lot. No wonder i am so dehydrated and hungry.

I grab a couple of bottles of soaps and disinfectants. I turn on the shower and try different soaps until I find one that will clean up the charcoal. It takes about a gallon of industrial-strength soap, my skin has only a slight discoloration (and no natural moisturize left).

I dry off and pull on my socks and boots. Then I put on the hospital gown again. I managed to open up the cut on you hand during your shower and dressing. I press the call button but by now I are fairly certain no one will be coming. I do notice that the grunting noise gets louder when the call button is pressed.

With a bit of searching I find some fresh gauze and replace the bandage on my hand.

My eyes are still burning and my head is still hurting and now my hand is starting to throb. But my hunger is starting to drive me to find some food, any food, even hospital food.

I push out the door and down the hallway toward what the sign indicates is the emergency room. This is far too quiet for a hospital emergency room. The grunting is being drowned out by the droning hum of the fluorescent lights.

As I move toward the Emergency Room the moaning and grunting starts again. Maybe there are other people here after all. The sound keeps getting louder as I lurch down the hall. I guess from the sound that there is more than one person nearby.

I reach a intersection in the hallway. I see a candy machine in the emergency room to your right and the cafeteria is straight ahead another three hundred meters. The grunting sound is off to my left. It might be coming from the nurses station or maybe from one of the examinations areas.

There is a lot of blood on the floor of the emergency room. In the hallway I am in the floors are fairly clean but the floor leading from the Emergency Room to the nurses station has bloody smears and foot prints running the length of the passage.

I hear an odd scraping sound like someone dragging their fingernails across a smooth surface.

I try and I try but I just can't clear my head. My body refuses to listen. Where the hell am I? How did I get here? Through the fog, one memory comes through. Me and the little tech-weasel, Knash, had been doing our usual "hack-into-unsecured-web-sites" Friday night thing, with - of course - the usual libations, but then what?

Well, I am off to find some liquid, and Knash, and maybe why there's blood all over the place and no people in the hospital. Nahhhh, first things first, liquid and then Knash! I head out down the hall to the intersection, and then across to the cafeteria. Hopefully some good samaritan will buy me a Coke - since a beer is likely out of the equation.

As I step into the intersection the hallway the grunting sound immediately stops. Somehow, I get a feeling that it is just gonna be one of those kind of days...

Roleplaying Inspiration

2006-04-02T09:47:00.000-06:00

I have recently seen Serenity (a lot) and am reading Snow Crash. Both are making me want to roleplay.

Serenity (and Firefly)
I have fallen in love with Serenity. It is an excellent movie but beyond that watching it makes me want to jump in and play a character in that world. The character interactions remind me of conversations I have heard around a gaming table. One example is the exchange between Mal and Jayne:

Mal: Do you want to run this ship?
Jayne: Yes!
Mal:Well... you can't...

That is exactly the kind of dialog I would expect to hear around the table. The character interactions are also reminisce of roleplaying situations I have seen. The characters don't always get along. They bicker and fight and in some cases are mean to each other. This type of behaviour gets worse in the Firefly series when the characters actively act against each other.

The characters are also not "white hat" heros. They are scoundrels and scumbags. They are criminals that do good only when there is no other option. They all have an unexplored back story that makes them feel more like a roleplaying characters I have seen. This is in part because the series was cancelled.

So I hope Serenity roleplaying is in my near future.

Snow Crash
Snow Crash is a "cyberpunk" novel, but is more light hearted and upbeat than any other book I have read in the genre. I would describe it as Sienfeld meets Neuromancer. This does not do the book justice though. The plot is rich. The characters are well done. The interaction of the characters in the real world and inside computers is except. I think the saving the world aspect of the book resonates with the gamer in me. I can very easily see my buddies coming over and playing in this world.

The tongue in cheek nature of the setting screams roleplaying to me. The main character "Hiro Protagonist" delivers pizza for the mob. The in jokes and cliches make me think of characters I have met at the game table.

My Inspiration
Both these stories are roleplaying inspirations but in different ways. I wish I could GM a game like Serenity. The characters interact smoothly, even when they disagree. The plot moves quickly, but the pace doesn't feel rushed. In my games an in character disagreement drags the game to a halt. Hours can be spent convincing the other characters to participate. Bribes and threats fly. The mood is broken and the pace of the game is destroyed.

I wish I could play in a world like Snow Crash where the characters and setting are off beat without the silliness spiral starting and leading directly to a game ending Monty Python revival. Maybe I need to stop recruiting players that read Critical Miss ;)

I know I could do these things but I lack something that would make the game a success.

I am not sure why these stories affected my roleplaying drive so much more than usual. These stories have rekindled a writing and story telling drive in me and I have started an online freeform game. The game is immensely fun and has been very well received. I also dragged out a old project that I have been working on on and off unsuccessfully for 5 years. I finally started to make some solid progress.

Wrapping Fudge results beyond Legendary

2006-04-01T22:51:00.000-07:00

After my last post (on dice pools, linking attributes to skills and keeping results inside the adjective ladder) I was talking to a friend about Rolemaster. Rolemaster (version 2) to hit rolls allowed the characters to "wrap around". This meant that a very high roll could result in two, three, or even four hit results and critcals.

I am now wondering if this would be helpful or hurtful for Fudge. To keep the results in the adjective ladder you could wrap very high rolls.

Given a task that has a Good target and a rolled result of Legendary+7. To wrap the result you take Legendary result and look at the remainder subtract 4 from the remainder to convert to a adjective. In this case Superb. So the resolution would be a Legendary result AND a Superb result. Two successes!

There is far too much math in this for my tastes but I am going to keep working on this to refine the idea.

Linking Skills to Attributes in Fudge

2006-03-29T11:27:00.000-07:00

I started this post a while ago but it has been sitting in my editor for close to two weeks. Since then this topic has come up on the Fudge List in the form a user poll. I started to reply to the poll but decided to finish this instead.

Background
I have been a Fudge fan on and off for close to eight years. Over that time I have experienced close to a hundred different systems to tie attributes to skills. This includes the Fudge "default" of not linking skills to attributes and dropping attributes altogether. I even considered dropping skills altogether. Recently the fudge List has had a thread on using the Warhammer Fantasy Role Playing style of skills. Warhammer Fantasy Role Playing using the attribute to set roll against and the skill list is a list of things for which the attribute can be used.

Many systems use an Attribute + Skill + Roll vs... target number system. This is a good model but it means that attributes are far more important than skills. A classic example of this is the climb skill in d20. Someone with a very high Dexterity score will have the equivalent of four ranks in the skill.

Rolemaster tries to mitigate this by making a role against an untrained skill start at a big penalty (-25%). This is a partial solution as it only means you have to develop a single rank in a skill to gain the full benefit of your attribute. Someone told me of a system that allows an attribute bonus to double the skill bonus. Any additional bonus from the attribute is lost. This is a better solution but still makes attributes far more powerful than skills. (There is nothing wrong with attributes being far more important than skills, the problem is that many people - myself included - want skills to be the focus.)

Results Beyond Legendary
This is a problem that I have struggled with in Fudge. How do you deal with a result of Legendary +3. In many cases I have dropped the adjectives and gone directly to the numbers. This is a very unsatisfactory solution in my opinion.

My Solution
[note: I have been told that this is how The Shadows of Yesterday works but I have never played the game so I am not sure ow accurate that statement is. If you have played the Shadows of Yesterday please leave a comment on how similar this is to the resolution in TSOY]

To fix the Attribute to Skill linking and results beyond the Fudge scale I am going to try a new resolution technique. I will use Attributes as dice pools this will be a combination of Aspects and dice pool. I have ~~stolen~~ um borrowed both of these concepts; one from FATE the other from Shadowrun. I will have three Attributes: Mind, Body, and Soul and each will be rated by the number of dice they have. Each character will have six (6) dice to split between the three attributes. These dice can be used for any roll that the player can justify their use. When attacking you could add a die from body because of you are putting your weight behind it, or a die from mind because you are going to go for the weak spot, or a die from soul because you a in the zone. The only limit I will put on the pools is you can only draw form two pools for any given action.

Pools will refresh fairly quickly and can be automatically refreshed by spending a fudge point.

To determine success for any given action:

The task difficulty defaults to Fair
To determine success:

start with four (4) dice
add any dice form your attribute pool(s)
add or subtract the number of dice from your skill rating
subtract dice for penalties (for opposed actions subtract dice based on results of the opposed roll - note that this could add dice if the opposition rolls particularly badly)

roll the dice and use the best four (4)
fair or better succeeds

If this works out the way I anticipate then attributes will be important but not as important as skills. A side effect will be that there can never be a result below Abysmal or above Legendary.

Examples:
Raol is trying to pick a lock while being fired upon by the enemy forces.
difficulty: fair
penalty dice: 3

attribute pools
Mind: 2
Body: 3
Soul: 1

skills
Locksmith: mediocre (-1)

Raol takes 4 dice, plus 2 dice from his mind pool, 1 die form his body pool, and drops three dice for the difficulty penalty, and drops 1 die for his skill rating. This leaves Raol with 3 dice (4+2+1-3-1=7-4=3). He rolls the dice and gets (-,-,+) a Mediocre result. This is a failure, but he can try again next round but he has exhausted his Mind attribute pool and has only 1 die left in his Body attribute pool.

Critical Miss

2006-02-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

I just saw it... Critical Miss Issue Number 10!

Jonny Nexus has posted on his live journal that Critical Miss issue ten is up. For those who know what Critical Miss is, well they have already followed the link and are reading it right now. For anyone who does not know what Critical Miss is, it is the web magazine for real gamers. You know, not the gamers people say they are, the gamers we actually are.

Three of the funniest things I have ever read were form the pages of Critical Miss.

So why are you still reading this, click the link, read something that is really good.

Edit:
The official Press Release for Critical Miss Issue #10

After a hiatus of more than three years and the accompanying requests, complaints and abuse that said hiatus generated, Jonny Nexus - the editor and chief writer of Critical Miss magazine - is pleased to announce that some seven and a half years after its founding, his magazine has finally crawled into double digits with the publication of its tenth issue.

This issue contains the same ingredients that made its forebears so successful - immature humour (peppered with swearwords) mixed with intelligent commentary and thought (also peppered with swearwords) - but builds on these foundations with the founding of the First Church of James Wallis Sanctified, a church dedicated to the belief that the British gaming writer James Wallis is a prophet sent by God.

It also contains what may be (and please God is) a world first: a scenario for Violence, the game that was never supposed to be played. Add in a guide to Information Laundering (the conversion of "dirty" player information to "clean" character information), a fistful (well three) of free games, convention reports, and some other stuff, and you have what is probably the best issue of Critical Miss since Issue 9, the last one.

The new issue can be found at http://www.criticalmiss.com/issue10

About Critical Miss: Critical Miss, "the magazine for dysfunctional roleplayers", is a roleplaying humour webzine. In its four-and-a-half years of intermittent publication, it attracted a legendary reputation among its five thousand or so devoted readers and a possibly less savoury reputation amongst everyone else.

Mysaniti Cartographers Guild (Subscription)

2006-01-27T21:32:00.000-07:00

Contents
This is a six month subscription for the Mysaniti Cartographers Guild, you receive six releases once a month on the 20th. You also have access to parts of the Mysaniti library of products. The releases are of maps, tools and catalogs for ProFantasy's Campaign Cartographer products. Maps released by the guild are released as PDFs as well as Campaign Cartographer formats.

During the six months of my first subscription some of the things that were released included:
Endless Realm
Ship Builders Toolkit
Journeyman's Toolkit

Endless Realm is an interesting product. It consists of a series of linked maps and each map will have two symbols included. One is a circle that indicates where you enter the map. The second is a portal that is the exit for the map. The Endless Realm release also included tools to add your own maps to the collection. Looking at the maps, I don't think I would play a game based on these maps but the maps are well done and the linking is excellent. For me the biggest benefit was looking at the maps. I learned a lot of valuable techniques from these maps. Reviewing these maps I also learned how to link maps. The quality of the maps in the Endless Realm series is excellent.

Ship Builders Toolkit is a set of tools to build ships. These tools will help you build a sailing ship form a cog to a galleon. The toolkit contains drawing tools like draw bulkhead, draw deck, draw mooring, and draw rigging. I have not used this toolkit yet to draw a ship for my own game but I have used the tools to draw a quick ship interior for a friend. The ship interior was used in a game where I was a player so O could not use all the tools. I was given descriptions of areas of the ship but not purposes for the areas. What I had thought was the ships galley turned out to be a torture chamber my character visited often as the game began. I was impressed with how easy it was to construct the desk of a ship using the tools. When the Ship Builders Toolkit was released a series of catalogs were also released or updated (the product page lists 10 catalogs) the two I found the most useful were the Ship Fittings and Ship Cannon catalogs.

As my first subscription neared an end the Journeyman's Toolkit was released. If you remember the old days of RPG maps where the maps was printed in white on blue on the inside cover of the adventure module you know the type of map this toolkit will help you create. More drawing tools and catalogs are included in the toolkit. I have a love hate relationship with this set of tools. The tools and catalogs work great and in a short time you can get a map created. I love the simplicity of the maps, and whenever I see a map in this style it takes me back to the early days of roleplaying. That would be the love part. What I hate is that I can't use all the other symbols I have purchased for Campaign Cartographer. Those old style maps really only used a couple dozen symbols.

This rocks becasue...
Each month you receive another Campaign Cartographer goodie.

This sucks because...
You might receive something that you can immediately use, but you might get something you don't really want or need.

You should buy this because...
Over the six months of your subscription you will receive a ton of stuff: maps, tools, catalogs.

Final Thoughts
This is a fantastic product. The six releases you get for your subscription will all be top quality. Add in the limited access to the guild library of other releases and you have access to loads of Campaign Cartographer goodies. Buying each release separately would cost a great deal more than buying the subscription. The only thing I would like to see is a longer subscription length.

Welcome to HAEL

2006-01-08T22:20:00.000-07:00

Contents
52 pages, 47 pages content, 2 cover pages, 2 credits pages, 1 license page

There is a lot of info crammed into the Welcome to HAEL PDF. This is a new campaign world where the war between the Orcs and man is over. On this world the Orcs won. The Orcs and their allies are the dominant races on this world, the Humans and their allies are relegated to outlawed tribes scratching out an existence far from civilization. The world is strongly linked to the related product Psihammer (review coming soon).

A brief history of the world is given, including the war that lead to the dominance of the Orcs. The civilization of the world has shifted. Orcs (called Daeorcs in the setting) have taken the northern part of the world, pushing the Humans and their allies into the barren desert at the equator. Gnolls (called Yaena) have similarly pushed the Humans form the south. The Orcs and Gnolls have both developed into civilized races while the Humans and Halflings society has crumbled. I like how half breed Humans are not accepted by Orcish society. I found that this is a well thought out cultural shift, with the Humans and Halflings of this world filling in a niche that is traditionally filled by the goblins and their ilk in a traditional setting. Recent history beings an alien visitors angle that I am not entirely happy with. There are two alien races that are recent arrivals on the world. These aliens seem to be setting up for another world shaking war. If I were to run a game in this world I am not sure if I would include the aliens.

The next section of the book details the major settlements in the world. This is done with a short stat block and a description of the local areas. There are six major areas detailed. Three in the north and three in the south. Here is also the biggest editing problem. Crossplains is a major location but other than the section heading the name of the area seems to have been changed to Cross Way in the rest of the book. It took me a few moments to make the mental cross reference. A few more maps in this section would have been a great addition to the product.

The races come next detailed in two sections. First come the pure blood races. Orcs (Daeorc), Gnolls(Yaena), Humans, Halflings, and the Kirene. the Orcs become the Daeorcs the primary dominant race. The Gnolls became the Yaena. A society to rival the Daeorcs. Humans and Halflings are the shattered remnants of the once great societies they were. Halflings have a peculiar relationship with the Yaena, serving them as animal trainers. The Kirene are unique to the world of Hael, they fill the void of the elven races that are not part of the world of Hael. The second group of races includes the half-orc, half-human with the new aliens visitors. I liked the treatment of the half-men. The societal impacts of being a half-man in an Orcish dominated world is well thought out. As I stated previously I am not sure how I feel about the aliens. However, even if I do not like them, the alien races are well done and add a new dimension for the world.

Character classes follow the races. Barbarians, Clerics, Fighters, and Paladins are unchanged from the stock rules. Bards have become the Yaena Storytellers and are a large part of the Yaena culture. Druids are also substantially modified and are identified strongly with the Kirene race. Halfling are tied to the Ranger class, a class that reminds me of the rangers found in the Dark Sun setting. Two new monk classes are introduced one specifically for the Daeorc race another for the Yaena. Rogues are also modified, they are presented as a thief that has not been caught yet. Rogues are expected to maintain a very strong illusion that they follow another path. Finally Sorcerers are a class dominated by the Daeorc race, the class is only slightly modified. The biggest modification is a skill that allows sorcerers to share energy and to duel with each other. Wizards are unheard of on the world of Hael. Psionics are also strongly liked to the world, but the psionic rules are not class based rules.

A pantheon of gods is included. There are Orc Gods and Gnoll Gods, I would have liked to see a few Human and Halfling gods included. If there are no Human and Halfling gods left then there should be a story about what happened to them.

A short bestiary of new creatures is included. The creatures included are well designed and in the case of the Varibeast seems to be the defining monster of the setting. Also included is a list of creatures from the SRD that would also be found on the world of Hael.

The last thing included is a single page map of the world. I really dislike the map. It is a simple outline of the continent with picture a picture mask in the background to indicate the type on terrain in an area. So you have an image of a pine forest for the "Many Forests" area and a picture of a mountain for the background of the "Cold Peaks". I found the map to be quite unsatisfying. It did however list all the areas discussed in the book, which is a plus. The only thing not marked on the map is the location of the two alien craft.

Intermixed with the text are comments attributed to "Professor Grumin Tarsh" an Orcish scholar. I found the comments to be well placed and added an excellent bit of "color" to the rules.

This rocks becasue...

It is a well thought out setting that changes the expected society norms you see in 'classic' fantasy world. The races and classes are well thought out to fit a world where Orcs are the dominant race.

This sucks because...

The aliens. I really did not like that aliens added to the setting. I also did not like the quality or quantity of the maps. Another run through for editing would also have made this a much better product (although it is still pretty good).

Edit: I have since gone through the PDF again and this is an unfair criticism. The editing is really quite good, I found a total of three spelling or typos in a 50 page document.

You should buy this because...

You are looking for a new setting that is not the standard elves and Humans dominated world. Or you are looking for a world where magic and psionics are intermixed.

Final Thoughts

I am looking forward to playing a game in this world where the players are all Humans. They would suddenly find themselves the underdogs in a way I don't think they would expect at all.

Deluxe Map Pack

2006-01-05T01:35:00.000-07:00

Contents:
72 Maps in a single pdf and in ProFantasy's Campaign Cartographer format.

The maps are a mixed bunch. There is far more interior maps of buildings and dungeons than areas or overland maps. The interior maps are in my opinion much better than the overland maps. The overland maps seems to be too structured, not natural enough. The interior maps have good detail and have good layouts. Too many maps I have seen have some pretty odd interior layouts. The interior maps in this package are not like this, the interior spaces are well considered and thought out. The objects (tables, chairs, etc) are well laid out and "fit" the buildings well.

I did not like the town maps at all. They did not look like towns and they were not maps I would use in my games. Although, to be honest these maps are better than what I produce with Campaign Cartographer. I especially like that the product includes the source maps, allowing me to edit the maps for my own use. Of course this requires that you own ProFantasy's Mapping software.

One thing that is missing is a license. There is no indication of how I can use the maps, for example can I use these maps in my own product? Can I use them in a commercial product?

This rocks becasue...

There are some good maps in this collection and there are a lot of maps total.

This sucks because...

There are too many average maps. Too many maps I would want to edit before I would use them.

You should buy this because...

You need some generic maps to use in your game.

Final Thoughts

The maps in the collection could have been greatly improved by adding some simple things like textured backgrounds. For the price this is a pretty good value, even more so now that the package is on sale. I paid $2.00 USD and the current sale price is $1.50 USD.

Jonny Nexus Compilation

2006-01-04T23:58:00.000-07:00

Contents:
45 pages, 43 pages content, 1 title page, 1 Advertisement and license page

The Articles:

Confessions of a Session Amnesiac (Jonny admits to being a session amnesiac, absolute gold and the best article in the collection)
Taking Santa Down
I think My Game Master Hates Me (I think my game master hates me too, excellent article)
You Want to Play a What?
Planning - How Not To Do It
Dealing With Dumbo (This article is brilliant, I have already tried the techniques in this article to mess with my fellow gamers)
Alas Poor Edas, We Knew Him
Are You Sure It Happened Like That? (Not my favorite)
Say What>?
The Man Who Couldn't Stop Dying (Part 1)
The Man Who Couldn't Stop Dying (Part 2)
The Man Who Couldn't Stop Dying (Part 3)
The Quintessential Cheat (Long and complex method of making a uber-character, I did not find this one funny at all)
They're Not Like Us, Adventurers

All the articles are good. I particularly liked "Confessions of a Session Amnesiac" and all three "The Man Who Couldn't Stop Dying". These got me laughing out loud. They reminded me of the days when I first stumbled onto Critical Miss and spent hours reading the articles, laughing alone on my cubicle at work. I kept expecting the articles to include a reference to BogBoy, Bubba, or TAFKAC. I also had to admit that I identified with these articles because I identified with the content. I could see the people I play with in the articles (and if I were totally honest I would admit I saw myself in the articles as well).

Of all the articles I liked "Are You Sure It Happened Like That?" and "The Quintessential Cheat" the least. I am sure there are people out there that will tell me that that those articles are the best. These articles were not bad, they just were not my favorites.

This rocks becasue...

For those people (like me) that miss the old Critical Miss this is an excellent package of articles form Jonny Nexus. Many of the articles would fit right into an issue of Critical Miss. I laughed out loud while reading several of the articles, they are not all gold but I am sure that others will like what I did not and dislike the articles I liked. The bottom line is that the articles are top notch and if you like Jonny's writing this is a great package for you.

This sucks because...

The articles are ripped directly from the Signs and Portents Magazine. No effort was made to make the articles look alike. There is no table of contents, page numbers are the pages from the original magazine pages. The PDF is also not printer friendly with a lot of images and background textures. One article is even white text on black background. My printer actually whimpered as I printed out, all that ink lost forever.

You should buy this because...

You miss Jonny's writing or you are looking for some top notch role playing humour.

Final Thoughts

The only thing that would make the Jonny Nexus Compilation better would be making some layout changes. Taking the articles and giving them a new layout would have probably made the package much more expensive though. Even removing the background images to make printing the articles would have been a great improvement.

Update:
As of Jan 5, 2006 the Jonny Nexus Compilation is listed as "Not Validated For Sale" at RPGNow

Lydin's Story Part 6

2005-10-26T21:13:00.000-06:00

Continued from Lydin's Story Part 5

Day 86
It seems like it has been forever since I have been able to rest. It seems the days just blend together into one long nightmare. Each day is a constant battle from wake until sleep to fight and destroy these creatures.

We have lost Lex and Slee... I do not remember when. I can barely remember anything. I can scarcely remember the last time we left the safety of town. We fought our way throughout the woods to a cave. Then battled through the caves to here.

I am surely going mad. I have even dreamed of fighting myself. The walls seems to close in on me at night and the air becomes thick with death during the day. I tire of battle, I tire of death, I am sick of killing.

Day 87
Finally a day without the constant pressure from the undead. We have found Lex. He is badly injured. We find a sanctuary we can rest in. I feel strange. New forces are at work here that I do not understand. I feel the awakening of powers within me that I do not understand.

I can no longer fully trust my companions. Especially Gworeth. Hawber has sworn never to harm Scratch again but can I trust him? Even Scratch seems strange. He no longer seems to answer my call when I need him. If I can not trust Scratch who can I trust. Andarymar openly mocks me and Pandarus seems distant to me. Are these my friends or my foes...

I try to sleep but I can not sleep without worry form these thieves and cowards. I feel a burning in my soul that will not go out. Finally I feel the release of sleep taking over but will I awake the same man?

Seraphim Guard

2005-08-16T12:59:00.000-06:00

"You got your Seraphim Guard in my Domibia Games!"

According to a news item from Tim at Seraphim Guard, Seraphim Guard and Domibia Games have merged into a single company Seraphim Guard LLC.

The new company will now be publishing the Gatecrasher and Heart Quest Fudge games as well as other game lines developed by Seraphim Guard.

Space Seed - Version #2

2005-06-19T23:32:00.000-06:00

MacKenzie "Mac-Koi" Koi wasn't a rocket jockey. He was an artist. He merged with his ship, he felt the ship in ways that the regular pilots thought was just a myth. As he skimmed the surface of Venus using the planets Gravity to accelerate his one seat cruiser to incredible speeds. He thought about his choices for what seemed like the hundredth time. The warning alarms had seemed much louder and brighter than any he had ever seen. After a moment of shock spent verifying the hull breach he had started running to the launch bay. The dull metal of the ships deck clanged in staccato rhythm as he sped to his ship. The dim halls and hatches were barely visible in the minimal lighting of the aging freighter. He reached his cruiser and leaped into the cockpit. He fired up the engines as his friend Milo started opening the hanger doors. As the engines started to hum he noticed several canisters and containers get sucked into space. Things were a lot worse than he thought if Milo was venting rather than pumping the air back into the ship. He finished strapping himself into his seat and launched his ship as soon as the hanger doors were opened wide enough to allow him to pass through.

He squinted as he burst from the darkness of the aging ships hanger into the brightness of the sun. He low flew along the hull and took a good look at the damage. A three hundred meter gash lead to a 20 meter hole in the forward port cargo bay. As he banked away from the ship two of his crew-mates joined him in formation. Grunting in disgust at their presence he barked into his communicator to Milo that he could nudge the ship but would need a lot more speed. He dove his ship towards Venus to sling shot around the planet and use its gravity well to accelerate his ship.

He looked over his shoulder at the two pilots that were flying with him. He did not know them well and he did not like them but they all worked for the same man. Milo. The pilots were not human, or at least not of a pure strain. They were water mutants, or squids. Mac hated squids, built from human stock to live in salt water communes and produce food for the surface dwellers. After a few generations they had developed a grey green skin hue, and a dark green patch under their gills.

Bred to be slaves, the surface dwellers were shocked when the squid revolt hit. The water mutants had surprised the surface by not only cutting off a valuable food supply but also striking with massive military force into the mega cities of the surface. Mac-Koi had been just a child when the attacks had started, and had served two tours during the second water war. When the water war was all over there were only three governing bodies left. First was the last national government, if you could call it that. The government of India was the last vestige of the old governments. The water mutants were another world power. They called them selves the Seabren. Mac just called them squids, as did a lot of the surface dwellers. They had become the biggest military force in the world, and except for one force they would have conquered the planet.

The force that stopped them was the consortium. The consortium was made up of the biggest companies in the world. They saw that the water mutants would simply over power the surface forces, so they stepped in. They purchased the militaries of the United States, Russia, Britian, and China. Other governments just assigned their military forces to the command of this growing corporate group. Only India and Japan remained separate from the consortium. The water mutants completely and utterly destroyed the island of Japan. That was what allowed the consortium to make their move. They moved a massive military force into place and moved towards the main home cities of the water mutants. This forced the water mutants to retreat from Japan and defend or risk having their own cities destroyed.

It was a solid counter attack plan, but the consortium was smarter than that. The military forces were just a decoy. They had thousands of scientists working on the perfect weapon. When the water mutants had moved to defend their homes they unleashed a gene virus. It made the water mutants change. They could still breathe water but they could no longer survive for long outside of it. The surface forces retreated in front of the advancing water mutant forces. It was a massacre. Thousands of the water mutants died without the surface forces having to fire a single shot. However, the virus was not perfect, or maybe the scientists did not think the consortium was the best choice to rule the planet. In either case a balance was struck. The water mutants were a power but they now knew that the consortium could destroy them on the surface. The consortium knew they needed the water mutants to produce the massive amounts of food the surface dwellers required to survive. In the twenty years since the end of the second water war the consortium, the sovereign government of India, and the Seabren formed an alliance to manage and govern the planet.

The bubbling and popping noises that passed for squid language brought Mac-Koi back to the present. "Okay you water bastards, none of that bubble crap, we have a job to do." Mac-Koi was selected to be part of the first unit to release the virus into the massed squid troops and as far as he was concerned they didn't finish the job. "The consortium isn't paying us to lose this cargo."

"I know that Koi. We are prepared to save the ship. Just lead us into position." Jiliat blurted. "Maybe you aren't the pilot the consortium thought you were." A gurggle-pop-slurp came over the communicator as Tacoum laughed at Jillat's comments.

"A little more of that and I might have to roast me a little fish." Mac-Koi barked. "Milo! Milo! Are you there, what are our options."

Back on the bridge of the cargo freighter the alarms were getting louder. Milo Besin looked into the scanner and he was pretty certain he was about to die. It had been almost five minutes since he last heard form his crew. He spent a moment feeling sorry for himself and then started to plan his next move. He didn't think we would live if he lost his cargo, but it was looking like he would not live if he kept it either. Moving along the console he vented cargo holds into space. He grimaced as he mentally calculated the value of the goods he was ejecting into space. The freighter lurched as the cargo was sucked into the void. He was about to vent the second bay when the communicator burst to life.

"Milo! Milo! Are you there, what are our options." MacKenzie's voice crackled over the aging cargo hulks speakers. "Milo, what the hell are you doing! We can still salvage the hulk if you give us a chance! I'm not risking my ass for nothing, and I am not letting the consortium think I let their cargo get dragged into the sun."

"Mac, I was starting to think you had left for good." He let out a long breath, he know this was a dire straits.

"It crossed my mind. I would have left already if I knew you were out here dumping cargo." Mac-Koi shouted into his communicator. "You know as well as I do that we either save that cargo or we might as well all free fall into the sun."

"I'll keep that in mind. "Are the twins with you?" Milo asked.

"We are still here. We are ready to move this ship to safety" Tacoum slurred, "we need to act now or move on."

Milo shook his head. He didn't know how he was going to keep this crew from killing each other. He started to wonder how he could drop the cargo and not have the consortium kill him. This was his last job, he had made a deal with his bosses. This cargo was his ticket on a transport to Alpha Centauri. He could leave Earth and retire but only if he salvaged this last cargo. Jillat and Tacoum came back towards the ship. They passed as close as they dared and Milo was knocked to the deck as the Seabren used the gravity drives on there ships to drag at the cargo hulk and pull it out of its decaying orbit. Milo was just getting to his feet when he was knocked down again. This time it was Mac-Koi. He got a lot closer and he had a bigger ship. Milo got to his feet and checked the console. The silence on the bridge was surreal after the alarms. Milo checked the orbit, it had stabilized and he knew he could now get back to the rendezvous point and collect form the consortium.

"Okay, this think is back on track. Get back here. We have two hours to assess the damage before we need to meet with our sponsors." He shouted into the communicator. He turned off the communicator and quickly put the course corrections into the navigation computer. He watched for a second to make sure the corrections were enough and that the orbit would not start to decay again. He turned off any inessential systems to reserve more power for the engines.

Once he was confident that the freighter would start the long trip to its lunar destination he needed to assess the damage. It wouldn't do to arrive at the delivery point without the artifacts the consortium was looking for. He walked slowly towards the cargo hold. The flickering lights in the hallways were not the friendliest light to walk towards your doom. After a few moments Milo started to run to the cargo hold and hoped he was going to find enough to salvage his deal with the consortium.

In only a moment Milo was at the damaged cargo hold. Milo looked at the artifacts the consortium had them hauling to the delivery point on the dark side of the Moon. The cargo hold that was damaged held the most expensive artifacts, of course. This cargo was officially owned by the consortium, of course. The hold was huge it contained 32 square sections each 32 meters to a side. Milo made his way to the damaged section. He almost fell over when he found that it was two complete sections that had been lost. The emergency bulkheads had sealed off the damage before it spread. Milo started to go through the rows and rows and rows of items. Many of the rows near the damaged area were knocked over. Milo started looking for a cause for the blast that had ripped a 20 meter hole into the hull of the ship. All this cargo were artifacts that had been harvested off Venus. It was a big shock to the people of Earth when the terraforming of Venus started that massive sites and machines began to be found.

Milo and his crew had been selected to make this delivery along with a lot of the items from Earth because they were not weighed down by the legality or morality of leaving behind people to haul away artifacts of questionable merit. Milo found another section that had been damaged very severely. The destroyed crates had been sucked into the damaged section. It looked like something from this section had punched a hole in the hull and took nearly seventy thousand cubic meters of cargo with it. He looked at the massive crates and calculated the number of people this ship could carry to safety. Shaking his head he thought about the two hundred and ten thousand cubic meters of cargo he had vented into space.

Alone in the darkness of the cargo hold he started to feel very alone in the world. His spirits got a good lift when he heard footfalls on the cold metal floor of the cargo bay.

"About time," he called to them , "we will have to do an inventory. I've recalculated the escape vectors and I think we may will be able to make the delivery schedule. If we still have enough to satisfy our customers, that we will have to..." Milo trailed off as turned to face the crew and there was no one there. He took a step towards a wall communicator and froze. A large crate was open and in the middle of the cargo hold. The crate wasn't there when he had crossed that section of the hold less than ten minutes ago.

Milo felt his last meal rise into his throat. Swallowing hard. He lurched over to the wall and punched a communicator panel. "Where the hell are you guys! Get down here now." No one responded. "Mac-Koi!" More silence. Milo spun around as a echoing crash rang through the cargo hold. Milo started to think that his crew had abandoned him. Milo pulled out his personal communicator and turned it on. It didn't have a lot of range but if Mac and the Twins were in the ship and near by he could communicate with them without using the ancient and apparently faulty communications of the cargo freighter.

"Mac! Jillat! Tacoum! I need you in the cargo hold now!" Milo snapped into his communicator.

"Milo? Is that you I can barely hear you." Mac voice cracked over the small device. "You dropped the ball buddy, Tacoum's ship is badly damaged. Drop the Magnetic shields, we can't get into the ship."

"What? The shields are down. I haven't put them up since we left the moon for Venus." Milo ran out of the cargo hold to a mini console. There were a lot of lights on that console. "Dammit, Mac I don't know whats going on but the weapons systems are powering up. Get away from the ship. Get away from the ship." Milo was started to get very nervous. He turned and took two running strides towards the bridge and ran straight into two of the strangest creatures he had ever seen.

They were about 7 and a half feet tall and had a metallic quality to their skin. Milo was struck by how fragile they looked, but judging from the swelling in his lip where he had contacted one, it was only appearance. They reached out and grasped Milo by the neck and shoulders. A high pitched squeal rang out from the creatures as they moved Milo back into the cargo hold. It seemed like quite some time to Milo that they sat there as they made those noises at him. Finally they led him away from the crates as several of the creatures converged from multiple locations. They each had peaces that Milo guessed were from the cargo. Milo started to yell at the creatures holding him and they released their grip on him. The items they were carrying started to melt and merge into larger items. Milo started to worry that he would not make his retirement.

The items started to grow and Milo suspected that the creatures were building a ship. Milo started to crawl backwards towards the main portal out of the hold. The creatures started to melt into the ship as the ship started to spin. The lower portions of the ship started to glow. The floor of the hold seemed to bend and warp away from the ship. Milo got up and ran. He leapt through the portal and slammed into the wall beyond. A brilliant light started to glow in the cargo hold. The entire ship shuddered as the things in the cargo hold broke through the first layer of the hull of the ship. The thing they had created started to arc up into the air crashing into rows of crates. Milo reached the control panel and hit the seal controls to close the bulkheads around the cargo hold.

Milo did not wait until the cargo hold was sealed, he started to sprint to the bridge. The lights in the halls were flickering badly. The was a lot of smoke in the main hall leading from the cargo hold. The dull sound of his footfalls were drowned out by the crashing sound of the creatures ship smashing through massive crates. Milo hoped he could get to the bridge before something really bad happened. He didn't make it.

The ship shuddered as the creatures ship ripped through the hull and escaped. Milo was thrown to the floor by the force of the hull breach. This was much worse than the first explosion. Milo was on his hands and knees trying to clear his head when a second blast rocked the cargo freighter. Milo was starting to get very nervous. He got to his feet and wiped the blood from his eyes. He must have hit his head when he hit the floor.

Once on the bridge he assessed the damage. It wasn't good. Alarms and warning lights accompanied nearly have the displays. Two massive holes had been ripped open along the side of the ship. This immediately noticed three significant problems that this had caused. First the freighter had resumed its near free fall into the sun. Second the port engines were offline, and judging from the massive damage on the port side of the ship they would not be back online prior to the freighter was drawn into the sun. Third, one of the holes in the ship had cut off Milo's path to the landing bay on the port side of the ship. Unfortunately that was where Milo's ship was, and right now it looked like that was his best chance to survive.

Milo started to punch commands into the control panel. He turned off the weapons systems, dropped the magnetic shields, and opened communications channels. "Mac you still out there?" Milo screamed. "I think I might be in trouble."

"We are not in the best of shape either." Mac-Koi's voice was shaky, "Why is the weapons system on? You nearly took Jillat out with the last volley of EM Disruption missiles. And Tacoum is down an engine. When those things blew out of the ship, it really made a mess. There is a lot debris out here. Fire up those engines, we can make another acceleration run past Venus. I think we can drag you out of this orbit again."

"Don't bother Mac, the port engines are out and I think the thrust from the starboard engines just isn't enough to break the gravity pull now. I am going to try to drop some mass and maybe gain escape velocity that way." Milo barked.

"That will take time, lose the freighter. Jump into your cruiser and get the hell out of there." Jillat's voice was crisp and clear.

"Sorry boys the path to my ship seems to have a rather large hole in it right now." Milo said. "I either get this ship going or I don't make it out."

"Okay, you start dropping cargo we'll see what we can do from here." Jillat said. Some bubbling an gurgling followed as he spoke with Tacoum. "Tacoum has a really good idea. Don't jettison the cargo from the starboard cargo bays. Tacoum is going to blast it. If you rotate 70 degrees to starboard the blast should give you the equivalent of a 2 minute engine burn."

Milo ran the calculation and Tacoum was right. "sounds good, rotating now."

It took a few moment for the bulky ship to complete the rotation. The alarms in the bridge started to sound like chanting to Milo. Twice during the maneuver the ship shuddered as the damaged sections reacted to the force of the engines.

"Rotation complete. Fire away Tacoum." Milo spoke into the communicator and started to shut down alarms.

Tacoum made a single pass past the freighter and blasted starboard cargo holds. The blast sent the freighter spinning, but spinning away from the Sun. The ship shuddered as the force of the explosions ripped large portions of the ships structure away. Milo gripped the console as the ship spun faster and shook more and groaned again. Looking at the console Milo started to to see that the blast was good not enough. He need to get the mass of the ship down and have a good long burn from the engines.

Smoke started to fill the room as Milo struggled to make calculations in the spinning console screen. He ran the calculations twice. He shouted into the communicator. "Okay guys, I need to drop 100 tons in order to have the starboard engines reach escape velocity. I can drop 60 or 70 tons on cargo but that's it. I am really interested in any ideas you have."

"Start dropping cargo, I think we can help you with the rest of the mass." Tacoum said.

Milo started opening cargo holds and watched as his last chance at escaping the Earth spun into space into an eventual impact with the Sun. Milo silently calculated the amount of fuel he would save as each hold vented into space.

"Cargo dropped. I am read for burn but I need another 30 tons gone." Milo was watching one of the few operational screens as Tacoum and Jillat ran the length of the ship. The ship jerked and shuddered as the blasted away at pieces of the superstructures. Milo hoped they were only taking pieces that were not necessary. More smoke started filling the bridge, and small fires started to flare up around the bridge. "This better work, you guys aren't leaving me a lot of choices or second chances."

"We'll get you out of there!" Mac shouted as he blasted the port bays off the ship. "That about all we can take off the ship! How your mass?"

Milo watched as the hold containing his cruiser floated off into space. He started running the calculations.

"That's ninety eight tons down. Mac take the twins and get clear. If this doesn't work its going to be a real short trip." Milo told his crew, he turned off the communicator and added "It's been great working with you."

Milo fired the starboard engines and the ship rocketed away from the sun. Views screens on the bridge showed the smaller ships speed away from the cargo freighter. Milo watched the sensors he had left and hoped that they would show him breaking free and moving towards the Moon. As the fuel ran out the sensors did not give him good news. As the ship shook and started to fall towards the sun again Milo sat by the console and started to go over the things they had tried looking for something that they could try. Mac-Koi's voice was crackling over the communicator, but Milo wasn't listening. He knew that this was his last shipment, just as he planned, but he wasn't going to retire according to plan. He reached up to turn off the console and something dropped out of his pocket.

It was a small shard, no longer than a seed. It looked like it was made of the same strange material that the creatures in the cargo bay was made of. Milo stared at this thing the space seed as it grew and expanded in size. Milo backed away as the thing grew.

Milo crawled over the communicator link. Mac was organizing another run at the ship calculating what parts of the ship could be blasted off without destroying it. "Mac get clear, really strange things are going on here. This freighter isn't going to make it." Mac started to reply but Milo powered down the freighter and walked over to the tear shaped growth that had grown from the space seed.

Milo reached out to touch the thing and was shocked that his arm passed into the mass. Milo was so shocked he took several steps back and fell into another one of the aliens. Milo started to scream as he realized that the bridge had more than a dozen of the creatures merging with the new ship in the center of the bridge. These sleek creatures ignored Milo and entered this new ship. The ship started to spin and Milo began to scream. He saw in the last functioning view screen hundreds of these ships burst from the long line of debris the freighter had produced.

Milo was thrown into the wall as the ship tore through the first bulkhead. The force was enough to knock him cold. This was probably best as only moments later the bridge emptied into space as the new ship broke free of the shattered remains of the aging space freighter.

Mac-Koi saw the freighter disintegrate. He knew his friend had not made it out. He watch for about a half hour until a massive solar flare consumed the the remains of the old ship. The twins were already a good distance towards the moon. MacKenzine waited just a few moments longer and turned his cruiser towards the moon and hoped he could convince the consortium that the loss of the cargo is not a breach of contract.

Fire, Friend or Foe

2005-05-10T07:35:00.000-06:00

Yuegarian has some how managed to light the bridge and burn to would be assailants to ashes. He is being quite stupid because he lit the bridge from the wrong side, trapping himself, but at least he singed Hawber. While our instructions were to make sure no evil got across, I assumed that we would do so by slaying our foes, but burning the bridge is okay as well. While I am enjoying the fire show, two new wanderers show up from the direction of town but don't appear menacing until one of them casts a spell on the bridge and Gworeth attacks. The sound of steel clashing echoes thru my ears, I watch and see the other members of my party attack the two new interlopers, and with one of them engaged with Hawber, I take my shot....the voices daring me to fire with out taking time to make sure Hawber is clear, instead I try to fire fast and low....not particular about which I hit.

It ends quickly, when get ensnared by Lydin, as the whole battle was a misunderstanding and the two new foes are allies of Lex. But now I notice that we are not out of the woods just yet, for a real danger has emerged....Tugwyn has come to taunt us with his new undead minions. While we dispatch the undead Tugwyn escapes again. After this battle, Cedric appears to let us know of the battles that ragged thru the night, and that we should now advance on the cemetary and kill the evil that resides there.

We rest and then begin the long journey, tracking our way thru multiple battles until we reach the cemetary. When we arrive a trap is sprung and once again Hawber is hurt along with our new ally Adrymar. The injuries our minor but cause us to be more careful. We follow a path thru the woods and discover another trap, this one a warning mechanism. With no way to disable it, we gird ourselves for battle and press on. We are not disappointed, for the battle begins with dead creatures and living alike, giants, wolfves and men. We dispatch the giants (I myself take one down in hand to hand combat, despite no help from our new mage.....he is busy protecting the cowards in the back), the wolves are scarred off and the archers are slaughtered. During the fierce battle the coward Tugwyn emerges once again to taunt us, but seeing our inevitible victory runs away yet again with his tail between his legs. Although the undead wolves are an abomination against nature, Tugwyn's cowardice and traitorous behaviour have the voices and myself agreeing.....TUGWYN MUST DIE.

Space Seed

2005-04-26T01:44:00.000-06:00

Space Seed is an experiment in improv writing. I have kind of fallen away from regular posting again. Hopefully this will give me a chance to get back on track. I asked several questions on the HARP IRC Channel using the answers I will attempt to write a short story.

Here it goes...

MacKenzie "Mac-Koi" Koi wasn't a rocket jockey. He was an artist. He merged with his ship, he felt the ship in ways that the regular pilots thought was just a myth. He left the cargo ship's bridge at a dead run. It felt as though he started holding his breath when he saw the warning lights on the bridge console and didn't stop until he was skimming the surface of Mercury using the planet as a acceleration sling shot.

He looked over his shoulder at the two pilots that were flying with him. He did not know them and he did not like them but they all worked for the same man, Milo. The pilots were not human, or at least not of a pure strain. They were water mutants, or squids. Mac hated squids, built from human stock to live in salt water communes and produce food for the surface dwellers. After a few generations they had developed a grey green skin hue, and a dark green patch under their gills.

Bred to be slaves, the surface dwellers were shocked when the squid revolt hit. The water mutants had surprised the surface by not only cutting off a valuable food supply but also striking with massive military force into the mega cities of the surface. Mac-Koi had been just a child when the attacks had started, and had served two tours during the second water war. When the water war was all over there were only three governing bodies left. First was the last national government, if you could call it that. The government of India was the last vestige of the old governments. The water mutants were another world power. They called them selves the Seabren. Mac just called them squids. They had become the biggest military force in the world, and except for one force they would have conquered the planet.

The force that stopped them was the consortium. The consortium was made up of the biggest companies in the world. They saw that the water mutants would simply over power the surface forces, so they stepped in. They purchased the militaries of the United States, Russia, Britian, and China. Other governments just assigned their military forces to the command of this growing corporate group. Only India and Japan remained separate from the consortium. The water mutants completely and utterly destroyed the island of Japan. That was what allowed the consortium to make their move. They moved a massive military force into place and moved towards the main home cities of the water mutants. This forced the water mutants to retreat from Japan and defend or risk having their own cities destroyed.

It was a solid counter attack plan, but the consortium was smarter than that. The military forces were just a feint. They had thousands of scientists working on the perfect weapon. When the water mutants had moved to defend their homes they unleashed a gene virus. It made the water mutants change. They could still breathe water but they could no longer survive for long outside of it. The surface forces retreated in front of the advancing water mutant forces. It was a massacre. Thousands of the water mutants died without the surface forces having to fire a single shot. However, the virus was not perfect, or maybe the scientists did not think the consortium was the best choice to rule the planet. In either case a balance was struck. The water mutants were a power but they now knew that the consortium could destroy them on the surface. The consortium knew they needed the water mutants to produce the massive amounts of food the surface dwellers required to survive. So in the twenty years since the end of the second water war the consortium, the sovereign government of India, and the Seabren formed an alliance to manage and govern the planet.

The bubbling and popping noises that passed for squid language brought Mac-Koi back to the present. "Okay you water bastards, none of that bubble crap, we have a job to do." Mac-Koi was selected to be part of the first unit to release the virus into the massed squid troops and as far as he was concerned they didn't finish the job. "The consortium isn't paying us to lose cargos."

"I know that Koi. We are prepared to save the ship. Just get us into position." Jiliat blurted. "Maybe you aren't the pilot the consortium thought you were." A gurggle-pop-slurp came over the comm as Tacoum laughed at Jillat's comments.

"A little more of that and I might have to roast me a little fish." Mac-Koi barked. "Milo! Milo! Are you there, what are our options."

Milo Besin looked into the scanner he was pretty certain he was about to die. It had been almost five minutes since he last heard form his crew. He spent a moment feeling sorry for himself and then started to plan his next move. He didn't think we would live if he lost his cargo, but it was looking like he would not live if he kept it either. Moving along the console he vented cargo holds into space. He grimaced as he mentally calculated the value of the goods he was ejecting into space. The freighter lurched as the cargo was sucked into the void. He was about to vent the second bay when the communicator burst to life.

"Milo! Milo! Are you there, what are our options." MacKenzie's voice crackled over the aging cargo hulk's speakers. "Milo, what the hell are you doing! We can still salvage the hulk if you give us a chance! I'm not risking my ass for nothing, and I am not letting the consortium think I let their cargo get dragged into the sun."

"Mac, I was starting to think you had left for good." He let out a long breath, he know this was a dire straits. "Are the twins with you?"

"We are still here. We are ready to move this ship to safety" Tacoum slurred, "we need to act now or move on."

Milo shook his head. He didn't know how he was going to keep this crew from killing each other. He started to wonder how he could drop the cargo and not have the consortium kill him. This was his last job, he could make the jump to alpha-centauri and retire but only if he salvaged this last cargo. Jillat and Tacoum came back towards the ship. They passed as close as they dared and Milo was knocked to the deck as the Seabren used the gravity drives on there ships to drag at the cargo hulk and pull it out of its decaying orbit. Milo was just getting to his feet when he was knocked down again. This time it was Mac-Koi. He got a lot closer and he had a bigger ship. Milo got to his feet and checked the console.

"Okay, get back here. We have two hours before we need to have this thing back on track." He shouted into the communicator. Milo started to run to the cargo hold to assess the damage and find out what the hell is going on.

It only took a moment to get to the cargo hold, and Milo looked at the artifacts the consortium had them hauling to the jump points in orbit around Saturn. The cargo hold in question was the most expensive, of course. This was the one cargo that was officially owned by the consortium, of course. Milo started to go through the rows and rows and of items, looking for whatever had caused the blast. It was all some type of artifacts that had been harvested off Venus. It was a big shock to the people of Earth when the terraforming of Venus started and massive sites and machines began to be found.

Milo and his crew had been selected to make this delivery along with a lot of the items from Earth because they were not weighed down by the legality or morality of leaving behind people to haul away artifacts of questionable merit. Milo found the section that had been damaged, he looked at the now sealed hole in the bulk head. The crates that had exploded had been sucked into the void. Along with about seventy of the two or three thousand crates that had been in this hold. The damage was minor and the bulk heads had closed to seal the hole.

Milo heard the crew approaching him from behind. "About time. We will have to do an inventory, recalculate the escape vectors and maybe even jettison some more cargo." Milo turned to face the crew and there was no one there. He walked over to the wall and punched a communicator. "Where are you guys, get down here now." No one responded. Milo started to think that his crew had abandoned him. Milo pulled out his personal communicator and turned it on. It didn't have a lot of range but if Mac and the twins were in the ship and near by he could communicate with them without using the ancient and apparently faulty communications of the cargo freighter.

"Mac! Jillat! Tacoum! Where the hell are you guys. I need you in the cargo hold now." Milo snapped into his communicator.

"Milo? Is that you I can barely hear you." Mac voice cracked over the small device. "You dropped the ball buddy, Tacoum's ship is badly damaged. Drop the Magnetic shields, we can't get into the ship."

"What? The shields are down. I dropped them after we left Venus." Milo moved over to the mini console. "Dammit, Mac I don't know whats going on but the weapons systems are powering up. Get away from the ship. Get away from the ship." Milo was started to get very nervous. He turned to return to the bridge and ran straight into two of the strangest creatures he had ever seen.

They were about 7 and a half feet tall and had a metallic quality to their skin. Milo was struck by how fragile they looked, but judging from the swelling in his lip where he had contacted one, it was only appearance. They reached out and grasped Milo by the neck and shoulders. A high pitched squeal rang out from the creatures as they moved Milo over to the crates. It seemed like quite some time to Milo that they sat there as they made those noises at him. Finally they led him away from the crates as several of the creates converged from multiple locations. They each had peaces that Milo recognized from the inventory. Items that his contact at the consortium had mentioned as critical to the completion of the contract. Milo started to yell at the creatures holding him and they released their grip on him. The items they were carrying started to melt and merge into larger items. Milo could not identify the purpose for these items.

Milo started to worry that he would not make his retirement. The items started to grow and Milo suspected that the creatures were building a ship. He moved towards the main portal out of the hold. The creatures started to melt into the ship as the ship started to spin. The lower portions of the ship started to glow. The floor of the hold seemed to bend and warp away from the ship. Milo ran. He leapt through the portal and slammed into the wall beyond. The entire ship shuddered as the things in the cargo hold broke through the first layer of the hull of the ship. Milo reached the control panel and hit the seal controls to close the bulkheads around the cargo hold.

Milo did not wait until the cargo hold was sealed, he sprinted to the bridge. Before he got there the ship shuddered as the creatures ship ripped through the hull and escaped. Once on the bridge he assessed the damage. It wasn't good. A massive hole had been ripped open along the side of the ship. This immediately noticed three significant problems that this had caused. First the freighter had resumed its near free fall into the sun. Second the port engines were offline, and judging from the massive damage on the port side of the ship they would not be back online prior to the freighter was drawn into the sun. Third, the hole in the ship had cut off Milo's path to the landing bay on the port side of the ship. Unfortunately that was where Milo's ship was, and right now it looked like that was his best chance to survive.

Milo started to punch commands into the control panel. He turned off the weapons systems, dropped the magnetic shields, and opened communications channels. "Mac you still out there?" Milo screamed. "I think I might be in trouble."

"We are not in the best of shape either." Mac-Koi's voice was shaky, "Why is the weapons system on? You nearly took Jillat out with the last volley of EM Disruption missiles. And Tacoum is down an engine. When that thing blew out of the ship, it really made a mess. There is a lot debris out here. Fore up those engines we'll start another acceleration run past Mercury."

"Don't bother Mac, the port engines are out and I think the thrust from the starboard engines just isn't enough to break the gravity pull now. I am going to try to drop some mass and maybe gain escape velocity that way." Milo barked.

"That will take time, lose the freighter. Jump into you single seater and get the hell out of there." Jillat's voice was crisp and clear.

"Sorry boys the path to my ship seems to have a rather large whole in it right now." Milo said. "I either get this ship going or I don't make it out."

"Okay, you start dropping cargo Milo we'll see what we can do from here." Jillat said. Some bubbling an gurgling followed as he spoke with Tacoum. "Tacoum has a really good idea. Don't jettison the cargo from the starboard cargo bays. Tacoum is going to blast it. If you rotate 70 degrees the blast should give you the equivalent of a 2 minute engine burn."

Milo ran the calculation and Tacoum was right. "sounds good, rotating now... landing bay and port cargo bay beta and gamma are emptied. Fire away Tacoum."

Tacoum made a single pass past the freighter and blasted the beta and gamma cargo holds. The blast sent the freighter spinning, but spinning away from Venus. Milo gripped the console as the ship spun and shook and groaned. Looking at the console Milo started to to see that the blast was not enough. He need to get the mass of the ship down and have a good long burn from the engines.

"Okay guys, I need to drop 100 tons in order to have the starboard engines reach escape velocity. I can drop 70 tons on cargo but that's it. I am really interested in any ideas you have."

"Start dropping cargo, I think we can help you with the other 30 tons." Tacoum said.

"Cargo dropped. I am read for burn but I need another 30 tons gone." Milo was watching the screen as Tacoum and Jillat ran the length of the ship. The ship jerked and shuddered as the blasted off any super structures that were not necessary. "This better work, you arne't leaving me a lot of second chances."

"We'll get you out of there!" Mac shouted as he blasted the landing bays off the ship. "That's it how your mass?"

"98 tons down, get clear if this doesn't work its going to be a real short trip." Milo told his crew. "It's been great working with you."

Milo fired the engines and the ship rocketed away from the sun. He watched the sensors he had left and hoped that they would show him breaking free and moving towards Saturn. As the fuel ran out the sensors did not give him good news. The ship slowly started to fall back towards the sun. Milo sat by the consoel and started to go over the things they had tried, something that he could try. Mac-Koi's voice was crackling over the comm, but Milo wasn't listening. He knew that this was his last shipment, just as he planned, but he wasn't going to retire according to plan. He reached up to turn off the console and something dropped out of his pocket.

It was a small shard, no longer than a seed. It looked like it was made of the same strange material that the creatures in the cargo bay was made of. Milo stared at this thing the space seed as it grew and expanded in size. Milo backed away as the thing grew.

Milo crawled over the comm link. "Mac get clear, really strange things are going on here. I am not sure but I think I might have a way out, but the freighter isn't going to make it." Mac started to reply but Milo povered down the freighter and walked over to the tear shaped growth that had grown from the space seed.

Milo reached out to touch the thing and was shocked that his arm passed into the mass. He steped completely into it and found himself in a small cockpit with strange screens and controls. The seed ship lurched off the deck as Milo started to learn the controls. Milo started to get an idea why the consortium wanted thses artifacts. The ship was sleek and judging from the small motions he had mastered it was monster powerful. Milo smiled and started to move back from the freighters hull. He started the thrusters of the seed and rammed into the hull. he backed up and rammed again. It took him three tries to get through the hull. Then he was free of the freighter and he stopped and watched as the aging hulk slid into the suns gravity well. He watch for about a half hour until a massive solar flare consumed the old ship.

Milo turned his new ship towards Saturn and openned up. he caught up with his crew after only a few minutes. They were travelling slowly as Jallit had badly damiged his vessel trying to save the freighter.

"Well boys, we lost the cargo but I did manage to grab something for us." Milo spoke over his personal communicator.

"What in hell is that?" Mackenzie blurted. "And where did it come from?"

"Good to see you boss." Tacoum said.

"Let's get to the jump point. After that we'll see what we have here. I have a feeling that the consortium has a good idea what this thing is, but they are paying us to evacuate the Earth before the sun fails. I think we earned our pay today, we'll see what they will pay for this little gem once we get to alpha-centari."

okay that's it.
I hope it passable.
Please leave a comment to let me know what you think of the story.

The heat of battle

2005-04-18T22:52:00.000-06:00

Kom was an old veteran of the arena. He know that winning in the arena took skill. Winning took took cunning. Winning took planning. Above all these winning took luck.

Kom looked over the clearing and saw three bodies. One of the bodies was that of Hugan. Hugan was a giant of a man and had been one of the first friends Kom made when he joined the academy. It was blind luck that had placed them on opposite sides in this battle. Hugan's body was smoking from the last blast that had struck the man. The other two bodies were those of Kom's team mates. Grek and Wol were the two men that were part of Kom's team. Looking at there bodies lying motionless made Kom shudder. They had already lost the rookie Kyrn to the trip mine. Kom didn't like the math, he was alone against three opponents somewhere in the arena.

Kom new that with a three to one advantage his opponents could bait him into an action of their choosing. He would have to make them make a mistake if he wanted to have a chance at defeating them.

Kom started to formulate a plan, he knew it was a long shot but it was the only show he had. He looked for a defensible position. He moved to the position and looked for a spot that he could set his trap. He quickly placed a few demolition charges on the ground next to a small rock. He carefully covered the charges with sand and leaves. Now if he could just draw them out. He was backing away from his trap wen he caught the first flicker of movement.

Jak was the youngest of his opponents and obviously was looking to make the kill. Kom made a quick move into the bush and drew his pistol. He waited. He didn't wait long. Suz stuck her head out of cover just a few feet from the demolition packs. Kom slowed his breathing, and every so gently drew the action back on the pistol. He just needed Jak to get a few steps closer. He could hear the rasping breath of Jak as he stepped into the brush just a few paces to the east of Kom.

That was a close as Kom could hope for, he let out a long breath and squeezed the trigger. The blast from his pistol set off the demolition packs. Kom didn't think he would have caught Peet on the blast but he just saw Suz as the blast caught her and threw her into the air. As the blast quickly shot towards him he quickly shifted his weight and fired twice more. The first shot hit Jak in the leg, the second in the throat. Jak dropped immediately after the second shot.

Kom was excited he had managed to even the odds. All he had to do was... Suddenly his world exploded in fire. Looking down Kom saw a large black scorch across his chest. He looked to his wrist monitor just in time to see the lights dim. So this was it. He finally caught sight of Peet. Standing from a crouching position and bringing his weapon up and firing into Kom's chest again. Kom sucked in a painful breath and slowly everything went black.

With a slow whir the power on the battle suits came back on. Kom stretched and probed his chest. He didn't think any of the blast had gotten through. Peet was helping Suz to her feet. Behind her Hugan was laughing with Grek and Wol. Jak was stomping through the brush swearing loudly. Kyrn would be around soon. Kom looked a Peet. Peet had won he had the right to call for terms. That was the was of the arena, that was how Hugan had become part of Peet's team. Kom was already starting to think about the recruits he had seen when he had picked up Kyrn. Maybe he would be able to pick up a veteran rather than a rookie but with a losing record it became harder to get the talented players to commit.

Peet and Kom started walking towards the locker room.

"You know I was a little shocked at the demo packs, but it almost worked. I was less than a meter out of the blast radius. " Peet growled. "I am going to call for a forfeit."

Kom was sick. He had just lost Hugan, he didn't want to lose Wol or Grek.

"Rematch?" Kom offered.

"You lost to me twice in a row. No. I am going to trust in your recruiting. I will claim Kyrn."

"Peet, are you serious? You picking up a rookie? why would you do that? Claim a veteran and trade for a younger player, why pick up a rookie?" Kom barked. " Don't think I will play you easier next time we enter the arena."

"I have no doubt. But you should know I have made a deal. I am releasing Hugan." He must have seen the glint in Kom eyes. "Don't get any ideas. Hugan I will release but only because I think he needs to start recruiting his own team. I will give him one year to recruit his own team."

"He deserves it, I wish it was me who had given him the chance. " Kom looked at Peet.

As they entered the locker room Kom was already thinking about some of the recruits he needed to interview. Some to grab for his team, some to keep from joining Hugan. Kom had three days until he had to bring a team back into the arena. He wanted to be ready.

One departs, one joins

2005-03-17T12:41:00.000-07:00

After Lydin was finished checking Scratch's wounds, he moved on to check the wounds of the remaining party members. The five some and Scratch were of again. Tugwyn's mind is racing over the possible outcomes and when should he leave. There is a voice inside his head now talking to him. , telling him to wait. Tugwyn knows this voice is real being not like the voices Paradarus hears.

The party is moving again. They are under attack again. The undead came from behind them. It must have been ambush. The party is in trouble. Tugwyn's is running of in to the woods- laughing. Lydin calls but there are no response.

Gworeth is fighting to his life. Hawber manages to turn around to get in to fray. Paradarus is left behinds wait for a chance. Yue and Lydin decide to go the forest to go around the fight and flank the undead.

Paradarus manages to get into the battle, by reaching over Scratch Around three of them have take some hit but are still stands. Scratch is tearing to the undead, now his natural instincts have kick in. Lydin comes out of the forest and instantly is hit.

Yue in his rush to join the battle gets tangled up by a tree. Yue panic?s thinks it is the undead. Then he realizes it was just a tree and he needs to get into the battle. He knows the party needs him. He manages to get untangled, just to get tanked up in a down tree. Because of his fear for his friend?s life and the embarrassment of getting tangled up in his playground, blood starts rushing to his head. He manages to get free again and there is the clearing.

He sees a clear and starting running for it, hoping it is not too late

The party is getting hurting. There are too many of them. Scratch is bleeding, Paradarus is bleeding, Hawber is bleeding, Gworeth is bleeding, and Lydin is bleeding. They are all bleeding, badly except Yue who is lost in the woods. Lydin is scared, and does no what to do. In his moment of desperation he calls upon is cleric ability and received an inherited evil spell dead watch. He needs to save his friends. He casts the spell, hoping there are no ill effects.

Yue runs out into the clearing ready for battle, but the clearing is empty. Listening he hears the battle behind him. He runs back in the forest, fearful of what he will find and shamed the skills he is so pride of fail him.

Lydin is able to see how close is friends are to dead, scratch is hurting bad, he is running to heal scratch. Hawber, Gworeth, Paradarus are fighting a good fight, but are slow losing.

Out of the forest burst Lex,? Die you all unholy scrum, die? and takes on the nearest creature to him. Lydin is move over to heal Paradarus who is whooping o his feet. A number of undead have fallen, but there are many more standing.

Yue finally appears and takes no time to engage and kill an undead. Lydin is healing Hawber, and notices two creature watch the fight. One alive creature, one undead creature; the battle is stating to turn around there are only a couple of undead left.

There is laughter as a magical light hits Hawber. It was Tugwyn, Hawber suppress the urge to go running after him. Lydin notices the one life creature he now knows is Tugwyn leaving with the other Undead Creature.

With the Help of Lex and Yue they party finishes the reaming undead of. Lydin?s Gods grant him power of evil to use for good. Lydin understands what happens, but will remember the reason, why?

The party takes little time to composite itself, has darkness approaches and the forest comes alive, to run back to the Fletcher house. Arrows rain down on the party has they run back to safety.

When they reach the Fletchers house the greeting is not pleasant, but he lets them in. The Fletcher was upset that they return before the task was complete, Lex does not go in, he as business to take care of.

After Lydin was finished checking Scratch's wounds, he moved on to check the wounds of the remaining party members. The five some and Scratch were of again. Tugwyn's mind is racing over the possible outcomes and when should he leave. There is a voice inside his head now talking to him. , telling him to wait. Tugwyn knows this voice is real being not like the voices Paradarus hears.

The party is moving again. They are under attack again. The undead came from behind them. It must have been ambush. The party is in trouble. Tugwyn's is running of in to the woods- laughing. Lydin calls but there are no response.

Gworeth is fighting to his life. Hawber manages to turn around to get in to fray. Paradarus is left behinds wait for a chance. Yue and Lydin decide to go the forest to go around the fight and flank the undead.

Paradarus manages to get into the battle, by reaching over Scratch Around three of them have take some hit but are still stands. Scratch is tearing to the undead, now his natural instincts have kick in. Lydin comes out of the forest and instantly is hit.

Yue in his rush to join the battle gets tangled up by a tree. Yue panic?s thinks it is the undead. Then he realizes it was just a tree and he needs to get into the battle. He knows the party needs him. He manages to get untangled, just to get tanked up in a down tree. Because of his fear for his friend?s life and the embarrassment of getting tangled up in his playground, blood starts rushing to his head. He manages to get free again and there is the clearing.

He sees a clear and starting running for it, hoping it is not too late

The party is getting hurting. There are too many of them. Scratch is bleeding, Paradarus is bleeding, Hawber is bleeding, Gworeth is bleeding, and Lydin is bleeding. They are all bleeding, badly except Yue who is lost in the woods. Lydin is scared, and does no what to do. In his moment of desperation he calls upon is cleric ability and received an inherited evil spell dead watch. He needs to save his friends. He casts the spell, hoping there are no ill effects.

Yue runs out into the clearing ready for battle, but the clearing is empty. Listening he hears the battle behind him. He runs back in the forest, fearful of what he will find and shamed the skills he is so pride of fail him.

Lydin is able to see how close is friends are to dead, scratch is hurting bad, he is running to heal scratch. Hawber, Gworeth, Paradarus are fighting a good fight, but are slow losing.

Out of the forest burst Lex,? Die you all unholy scrum, die? and takes on the nearest creature to him. Lydin is move over to heal Paradarus who is whooping o his feet. A number of undead have fallen, but there are many more standing.

Yue finally appears and takes no time to engage and kill an undead. Lydin is healing Hawber, and notices two creature watch the fight. One alive creature, one undead creature; the battle is stating to turn around there are only a couple of undead left.

There is laughter as a magical light hits Hawber. It was Tugwyn, Hawber suppress the urge to go running after him. Lydin notices the one life creature he now knows is Tugwyn leaving with the other Undead Creature.

With the Help of Lex and Yue they party finishes the reaming undead of. Lydin?s Gods grant him power of evil to use for good. Lydin understands what happens, but will remember the reason, why?

The party takes little time to composite itself, has darkness approaches and the forest comes alive, to run back to the Fletcher house. Arrows rain down on the party has they run back to safety.

When they reach the Fletchers house the greeting is not pleasant, but he lets them in. The Fletcher was upset that they return before the task was complete, Lex does not go in, he as business to take care of.